Anheuser-Busch distributors across America’s heartland and the South are “spooked” by public backlash to a Bud Light campaign promoting transgenderism, an industry insider reported.
This month, Bud Light partnered with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, a former gay man who now dresses as a woman and has risen to corporate leftist stardom with his viral TikTok videos chronicling his day-to-day “transition” to a woman.
“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 says in the Bud Light ad.
In response to the ad, Bud Light distributors and customers have dropped Anheuser-Busch products, which include not only Bud Light but also Budweiser, Stella Artois, Shock Top, Kona Brewing Co., Michelob Ultra, and Busch Beer.
An industry insider from Beer Business Daily, reporting on the backlash, suggested that distributors in America’s heartland and the South are worried about their associations with the beer company:
We reached out to a handful of A-B [Anheuser-Busch] distributors who were spooked, most particularly in the Heartland and the South, and even then in their more rural areas. [Emphasis added]
Anheuser-Busch executives have defended the partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, writing in a statement that their “commemorative can” for the transgender activist is meant to “celebrate a personal milestone” such as his 365th day of calling himself a woman.
“From time to time we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney,” executives wrote in a statement to Fox News Digital. “This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public.”
A newly unearthed video shows Bud Light Vice President Alissa Heinerscheid seemingly trashing the beer brand’s traditional consumer demographic of American men at sporting events and dive bars.
“We had this hangover, I mean 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,” Heinerscheid said. “Representation is sort of at the heart of evolution, you have got to see people who reflect you in the work.”
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter here.
