BeerBoard, a tech company that provides data to the beverage industry, says that Bud Light has seen a significant decline in pours at restaurants and bars across the U.S. following the company’s decision to partner with controversial transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Approximately 3,000 locations that use BeerBoard’s technology logged 6% less Bud Light sales from April 2 to April 15 after calls for boycotts against the company, Axios reported.
The partnership between Bud Light and Mulvaney started on April 1 and instantly backfired as many high profile conservatives signaled they were done with the brand.
In the week that followed the announcement, Bud Light sales plummeted 11% and the following week the sales cratered, dropping 21% in volume, the report said, according to data from NielsenIQ and Bump Williams Consulting.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Daniel Blake, who oversees marketing for Anheuser-Busch’s mainstream brands, has been placed on leave over the incident.
Blake is the boss of Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s vice president of marketing, who was also placed on leave late last week.
“Given the circumstances, Alissa has decided to take a leave of absence which we support,” an Anheuser-Busch spokeswoman said in an email. “Daniel has also decided to take a leave of absence.”
The report said that sources familiar with the matter indicated their decision to take a leave of absence was not voluntary.
Anheuser-Busch is making internal adjustments within its marketing department to ensure that “senior staff are fully connected to decisions about brand activities,” according to the report.
“These steps will help us maintain focus on the things we do best: brewing great beer for all consumers, while always making a positive impact in our communities and on our country,” the company said.
After the controversy erupted with Mulvaney, video surfaced of remarks that Heinerscheid made during a recent podcast in which she said she wanted to change Bud Light’s image.
“I’m a businesswoman, I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light, and it was ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand there will be no future for Bud Light,’” Heinerscheid said during the podcast.
She said she had a “super clear” mandate “to evolve and elevate this incredibly iconic brand.” Heinerscheid said she aimed to incorporate “inclusivity, it means shifting the tone, it means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive, and feels lighter and brighter and different, and appeals to women and to men.”
“Representation is sort of at the heart of evolution, you have got to see people who reflect you in the work,” the marketing exec continued. “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.”
Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s VP of Marketing, doubles down on her extreme woke strategy to promote the “declining” American beer brand to “young people”, while smearing her former customers as “fratty and out of touch”.
How’s that working out for you, lady? @budlight pic.twitter.com/zNYKbMnZnu
— Old Row (@OldRowOfficial) April 9, 2023