Anheuser-Busch Loses $390 Million After Bud Light Boycott Over Dylan Mulvaney Campaign

New reports have revealed that Anheuser-Busch has lost a whopping $390 million since its company Bud Light went woke by teaming up with the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for an ad campaign back in April.

Anheuser-Busch Loses $390 Million

Daily Mail reported that Anheuser-Busch responded to this massive drop in the second quarter by blaming the “volume decline” of Bud Light. Anheuser-Busch added that sales to U.S. retailers plummeted 14 percent, and that they had been “underperforming the industry.” This was said to be because of the collaboration with Mulvaney.

In the second quarter of 2022, Anheuser-Busch sold $2.73 billion worth of beer to retailers. In that same quarter this year, however, sales declined to $2.35 billion, which is a slump of $390 million in a year.

“Consumers have made a choice,” an executive at a Texas-based beer distributor who preferred to remain anonymous told The New York Post. “They have left [Bud Light] and that’s how it’s going to be. I don’t envision a big percentage of them coming back.”

The executive went on to say that coming out on top in the beer wars comes down to “whoever is best at marketing.”

Related: ‘No Way Out’ For Bud Light After Woke Dylan Mulvaney Scandal, Former Levi’s Exec Jennifer Sey Says

Bud Light’s Mulvaney Fiasco

Bud Light’s popularity has been declining ever since the company teamed up with Mulvaney, 26, for an ad campaign and gave her a personalized beer can to celebrate her “365 days of girlhood” back in April. The next month, Anheuser-Busch sent out a letter attempting to distance itself from the controversy.

“This was one single can given to one social media influencer,” the letter read, according to Daily Wire. “It was not made for production or sale to the general public. This can is not a formal campaign or advertisement.”

“Anheuser-Busch did not intend to create controversy or make a political statement,” the letter continued. “In reality, the Bud Light can posted by a social media influencer that sparked all the conversation was provided by an outside agency without Anheuser-Busch management awareness or approval.”

Unfortunately for Anheuser-Busch, however, this did nothing to stop the conservative boycott of Bud Light.

“Bud Light’s missteps felt like a betrayal to both its liberal and conservative customers, and that trust is going to take months, if not years, to rebuild,” Daniel Korschun, an associate professor of marketing at Drexel University’s LeBow College of Business, recently told The New York Times.

Related: New York Bar Ditches Bud Light For Going Woke In Viral Video

Other Anheuser-Busch Brands ‘Infected’

Making matters even worse for the brand, Bud Light’s unpopularity appears to have “infected” its sister brands under the Anheuser-Busch umbrella. Sales of Michelob Ultra were down 4.3% in the week that ended July 1, while Busch Light sales were down 8.5%, according to Bump Williams’ eponymous consulting firm.

“Budweiser trends have been slipping for a very long time, but it’s the Michelob Ultra negative numbers and now Busch Light negative trends that are most alarming to me,” Williams told The Post. “They were very healthy prior to April 1.”

In contrast, Modelo Especial, which has dethroned Bud Light as America’s top beer, has seen its sales increase 11.4% during the week that ended July 1.

“The gap between Modelo Especial and Bud Light on a year-to-date basis is closing,” Williams explained.

This all just goes to show that “go woke, go broke” is more than just a mantra, as it is a very real thing indeed. In the end, more companies should take notice of this Bud Light fiasco and not make the same mistake of going woke in the future!