Anheuser-Busch has lost more than $6 billion in market value in the days following its promotional partnership with transgender social media celebrity Dylan Mulvaney, with its shares falling amid a nationwide backlash against Bud Light.
Shares of Anheuser-Busch Inbev have dropped nearly five percent after Dylan Mulvaney announced the Bud Light deal at the beginning of the month, wiping out $6.65 billion of the company’s market capitalization.
Dylan Mulvaney — who was born a male but now claims to be a woman — is the latest spokesperson for Bud Light, which has honored Mulvaney with a limited release can with his face on it. In recent social media videos, Mulvaney has promoted the brand by cavorting in a bubble bath and talking about March Madness.
“This month I celebrated my day 365 of womanhood and Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever — a can with my face on it,” Mulvaney said in announcing the deal.
The partnership has instigated a nationwide backlash against the beer brand, with sales taking a significant hit across several states.
As Breitbart News reported, bars across the country are seeing customers avoid the brand. In one Missouri bar, sales of Bud Light and other Anheuser-Busch beverages have reportedly dropped by roughly 40 percent. A bar in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood — which has a high population of gays — reportedly saw Bud Light sales drop 70 percent.
Another report found Anheuser-Busch distributors across America’s heartland and the South are being “spooked” by public backlash to the Dylan Mulvaney campaign.
Bud Light vice president of marketing Alissa Heinerscheid explained in a video that “Bud Light had been kind of a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor, and it was really important that we had another approach.”
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