The fallout from the disastrous business relationship between transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney and Bud Light continues as now reports have emerged that the company that introduced the two has delved into chaos.
According to a New York Post report, a San Francisco-based marketing firm was in a “serious panic mode” due to the disastrous reception of Bud Light’s association with Mulvaney.
The company, Captiv8, specializes in “end to end influencer marketing,” and, essentially, helps major brands connect with influencers across social media to assist with advertising initiatives.
The Post does note that, despite Captiv8 introducing Bud Light and Mulvaney, it’s unclear to just what extent it was involved in the actual campaign (a word that Bud Light parent company Anheuser-Busch CEO Michel Doukeris vehemently opposes, insisting that it was just “one post”) that has proven so disastrous.
Regardless, merely being attached to the fierce backlash of the Mulvaney-Bud Light debacle was apparently enough to send the offices of Captiv8 into a tizzy.
“Internally, the company was in serious panic mode,” an unnamed source told The Post.
The source added that “a lot of chatter” was also taking place among employees about the potential ramifications of the torrid backlash.
It makes sense that Captiv8 was as reportedly concerned during the onset of this catastrophe.
Few, if any, advertising campaigns (or posts) have engendered the type of scorn and repulsion that Bud Light’s work with Mulvaney has.
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And it’s not just anecdotal backlash about untouched cases of Bud Light at concerts and baseball games.
There are very real, very tangible consequences to this fiasco.
First, and perhaps most pressingly to Captiv8, both of the executives that were largely blamed for the disastrous decision have been put on leave.
Alissa Heinerscheid, the marketing vice president who wanted to drastically alter the image of Bud Light, was put on a leave of absence in April.
Another marketing VP, Daniel Blake, was reportedly placed on leave just days later.
Second, and perhaps most pressingly to Anheuser-Busch, the backlash to working with Mulvaney has had an indelible fiscal impact on the beer brewer.
The most recent reports claim that Bud Light has lost a whopping $27 billion of dollars in market value since working with Mulvaney.
The precipitous drop in sales has obviously harmed the Belgian beer company’s bottom line, and since it is a business, heads understandably had to roll.
As for Captiv8, while it’s unclear if the firm will ever acknowledge whatever role it may or may have played in connecting Bud Light with Mulvaney, it appears the company’s employees, at the very least, understood the gravity of the situation.
