A punishing conservative boycott has dealt a crushing blow to Anheuser-Busch InBev’s Bud Light brand in the wake of its gimmicky marketing campaign lionizing transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
Sales have cratered so dramatically that it has dropped off the list of America’s 10 most popular beers, according to a new YouGov poll.
Before the Mulvaney debacle, Bud Light — which was the nation’s top-selling beer for the past two decades — was a staple on the top 10 list.
However, for the second quarter that ended June 30, Bud Light tumbled to No. 15, despite having the highest name recognition of all the beers covered in the YouGov survey.
“Sales of the popular beer dropped 28% for the week ending June 24 when compared to the same period last year,” CBS News reported.
The slump is specific to Bud Light, and is not an industry-wide trend.
“Sales of Yuengling Lager, Coors Light and Miller Lite all rose by 22%, 19% and 16% respectively during that same week,” according to CBS News.
Bud Light is struggling to win back once-loyal customers after being steamrolled by a devastating conservative boycott over its ploy to use a man who claims he’s a woman to promote its brand.
In fact, the company is so desperate to staunch the bleeding that it’s giving away $10,000 a week as part of its “Easy to Summer” campaign.
Will Bud Light ever make a comeback?
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No: 100% (1 Votes)
In the run-up to Independence Day, the beer giant also offered a $15 rebate on a 15-pack of Bud Light. Since a 15-pack costs less than $15 in many areas of the country, that amounted to giving the beer away. And still consumers stayed away.
Some industry experts say the damage to the brand has been so catastrophic that it might never recover.
Andy Wagner, the manager of Glenn Miller’s Beer & Soda Warehouse in Pennsylvania, told The New York Times that Bud Light sales at his distribution center have tanked 45 percent since April.
For reference, Bud Light launched its ad campaign featuring trans activist Mulvaney on April 1. It has been a downward spiral for the brand ever since.
“It’s not that [customers] stopped drinking beer,” Wagner said. “They just stopped buying Bud Light.”
The industry insider said it’s possible that Bud Light may never recover some of its lost customers in the wake of the Mulvaney debacle.
“I’ve seen longtime Bud Light customers trying other beers,” he told the Times. “If they find something they like, they may not come back.”
Other beer industry experts agree that the damage Bud Light did when it cavalierly used a man pretending to be a woman to promote its brand could have long-term consequences beyond just this summer.
At the moment, Bud Light is being decimated during the critical summer sales season — May through August — which makes up as much as 40 percent of annual beer sales.
“Here we are about 10 weeks into it, and we’re still seeing double-digit declines in volumes nationally,” beverage industry consultant Bump Williams told the Times. “This is no longer an anomaly. This is a trend of concern.”
