Bud Light sales suffers its worst weekly sales drop as it falls by 26.8%

Bud Light has faced another tragic week of setbacks as its weekly sales have fallen 26.8% since partnering with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney sparked massive protests against the brand.

The once-popular beer company had its worst week of sales since teaming up with Mulvaney, 26, to celebrate his 365th day of youth in April, down 26.8% the week of June 10.

That’s a deeper drop from the week ending June 3, which saw a 24.4% drop, according to Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ.

The new low beat the week ending May 25, which saw a decline of almost 26%.

Anheuser-Busch’s other brands – including Budweiser and Natural Light – have also seen a significant drop in sales since the April 1 controversy. Budweiser is down 10%, while Natural Light and Michelob Ultra are down 2.3 and 2.4%, respectively.

“It’s been a tough week for Bud Light and other beer brands,” said Bump Williams, owner of the consulting firm.

Anheuser-Busch’s other brands – including Budweiser and Natural Light – have also seen a significant drop in sales since the April 1 controversy with Mulvaney.

Since the Anheuser-Busch scandal, the country’s second-biggest beer – Modelo – has risen rapidly through the ranks, increasing sales by 5.7% in the week ending June 10.

The Anheuser-Busch chief marketing officer said while accepting an award at an advertising awards ceremony on Monday that the partnership between Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney was a humble reminder he needed to better understand his consumers. .

Marcel Marcondes ironically made the comments while accepting the ‘Creative Marketer of the Year’ award at the Cannes Lions – a lavish industry conference in the south of France dubbed the ‘Oscars of the Advertising Industry. “.

It comes months after the company lost $27 billion due to a campaign.

Although AB was named the winner of the award before the fiasco broke, it wasn’t officially awarded until Monday, meaning there was a mighty elephant in the room. Some even said that the company should refuse the price, the the wall street journal reported.

“At times like this, when things get so easily confrontational and controversial, I think it’s an important red flag for all of us marketers to first be very humble,” said he declared.

“That’s what we do, being very humble and really remembering what we should be doing best every day, which is really understanding our consumers.

“Which is about truly celebrating and appreciating every consumer who loves our brands – but in a way that can make them be together, not apart.”

The session was described in the program notes as a discussion in part about “AB InBev’s relentless focus on connecting with consumers in meaningful ways,” The Wall Street Journal reported.

Budweiser is down 10%, while Natural Light and Michelob Ultra are down 2.3 and 2.4%, respectively.

Marcondes has worked at AB InBev for nearly two decades, according to his LinkedIn profile, and now oversees his global marketing strategies for AB brands, including Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob ULTRA, Stella Artois and others.

“It’s hard to see the contentious and divisive debates that have taken place in the United States over the past two weeks involving many brands and companies, including and especially Bud Light,” Marcondes said during Monday’s presentation.

“It’s difficult exactly because what we do is to bring people together.”

“That’s what Bud Light stands for – it exists to make beer easy to drink and easy to enjoy,” he said.

“That’s what we will all do, as a team, to move forward as a group. That’s what leaders do. Bud Light returns. It goes around the country, it reconnects with consumers, it moves forward. That’s what you can expect from Bud Light in the USA.

Anheuser-Busch Global Marketing Director Marcel Marcondes (pictured) said the Bud Light partnership with Mulvaney was a humble reminder he needed to better understand his consumers.

Bud Light has been accused of alienating its traditional clientele by partnering with Mulvaney

Modelo has seen its sales increase since the beginning of the boycotts with Bud Light

Bud Light’s historic decline came after it partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney for a marketing campaign.

The hangover from the catastrophic publicity push has continued since the collab was released in early April.

In the controversial promotion, Mulvaney, 26, posted a video on April 1 of herself opening a Bud Light to her Instagram page.

She showed off the personalized can with her face on it – one of the many corporate gifts she receives and promotes to her millions of followers.

Bud Light has been accused of alienating its traditional clientele by associating itself with Mulvaney, leading many conservatives – including Kid Rock – to boycott the brand.

The Tories continued the boycott, leading the Belgian brewer to furlough in April two executives responsible for the partnership – Alissa Heinerscheid, the vice president of marketing, and her boss, Daniel Blake.

Heinerscheid was hired to overhaul Bud Light’s marketing in June 2022 with a vision to refresh its image, while Blake had worked at Anheuser-Busch for nearly nine years.

Heinerscheid’s short-lived tenure reportedly included a much-loved Super Bowl commercial featuring Miles Teller and his wife Keleigh Sperry, as well as “the Bud Light Carry” campaign which showed a woman carrying a round of beers to a table. friends without spilling a drop.

These ads, statements from the beer brand revealed, were part of Heinerscheid’s vision to make the brand more female-friendly – something she described just months ago as a “point of passion “.

But that view was quickly scaled back on April 3 with the brand’s partnership with Mulvaney, a controversial trans activist with a mass social media following, which proved to be a step too far for loyal Bud Light customers. .

After Anheuser-Busch tried to distance itself from the Mulvaney promotion, Bud Light also faced backlash, with pro-LGBTQ groups accusing the company of ditching the transgender influencer.