The St. Louis Post-Dispatch highlighted the fact that Bud Light’s sales are going down.
A story in the company’s hometown paper says that Bud Light is in “serious trouble” and could lose its spot as the best-selling beer in the United States because people are still upset about the ad with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch wrote an article called “Bud Light sales continue to plummet after transgender marketing controversy,” which was very negative and brought attention to the huge drop.
During the week that finished on April 22, sales of Bud Light in stores dropped by 26%, according to the Post-Dispatch. The statistics came from the beverage alcohol industry specialist Bump Williams Consulting in Connecticut.
The Post-Dispatch said, “The decline is getting worse,” because Bud Light’s sales were down 21% the week before and 11% the week before that. The paper says that sales are down 8% for the whole year.
The company’s founder and CEO, Bump Williams, told the Post-Dispatch that Bud Light is still the best-selling beer in America, but that “Bud Light is in serious trouble this year” if Anheuser-Busch doesn’t stop the drop soon.
“I think it could lose that No. 1 spot to Modelo Especial at the end of the calendar year 2023,” Williams told the magazine.
Since the deal with Mulvaney was made public, Anheuser-Busch, whose headquarters have always been in St. Louis, where the Post-Dispatch has a lot of power, has been made fun of, attacked, and even boycotted.
The problem started in March, when Mulvaney told the media that Bud Light sent the influencer packs of beer with her face on them to celebrate a year of “girlhood.”
Mulvaney posted on Instagram that the cans were her “most prized possession” with the hashtag “#budlightpartner.” As part of the marketing, Mulvaney was then shown in a video sitting in a pool and drinking a Bud Light beer. Conservatives have quickly pushed back, and as a result, parent company Anheuser-Busch has seen its sales drop.
The same message that Anheuser-Busch gave to Fox News Digital last month was also given to the Post-Dispatch.
“Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of stars across all of our brands as one way to connect with people from different backgrounds in a real way. We sometimes make one-of-a-kind commemorative cans for friends and people who have a lot of impact on the brand, like Dylan Mulvaney. Anheuser-Busch told Fox News Digital that this special can was given as a gift to mark a personal achievement and is not for sale to the general public.
Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing for Bud Light, is said to have taken time off after the controversial relationship. The company has also hired experts who have worked in conservative groups in Washington, D.C. to help the brand move forward.