The beleaguered Bud Light beer company was the official sponsor of Toronto’s Pride Parade on Sunday when naked men marched down the street as children and families lined the sidewalks.
The annual event featured a float adorned with Bud Light panels, on which girls in shorts and colorful Bud Light shirts danced to music.
He also saw a group of nudists walking the streets and scantily clad performers dancing on a stage sponsored by Bud Light.
The decision to sponsor the event comes just weeks after the company apparently sponsored an “all-ages Pride event” in Arizona.
The company is still seeing profits plummet, with sales plummeting another 27% for the week ending June 10, as it continues to face backlash for a controversial partnership with trans TikToker Dylan Mulvaney.
Bud Light was the official sponsor of Toronto’s Pride Parade on Sunday
He sponsored a stage where a group of scantily clad performers wearing stockings over their heads performed
Videos posted online showed a group of nudists marching through the streets during the Pride Parade
Footage captured by Beth Basich of the Post Millennial from Sunday’s Pride Parade showed dozens of participants marching through the streets in full view of children who went to the festival with their families.
One carried a sign reading ‘Life is short: play naked’ and ‘Be naked, be bold’ to cheers from the crowd.
Another of the naked walkers held up a sign saying, “Let’s proudly celebrate my diversity.”
Other images showed a stage, clearly adorned with Bud Light branding, featuring scantily clad dancers wearing fishnets, nipple stickers and nylons over their faces with cartoon eyes drawn on them.
On its website, Bud Light Canada claims that it “has been a proud partner of Pride Toronto for 10 years” and states, “This year we are commemorating this milestone with Pride Toronto by featuring them on our can designs, such as as well as continuing as the official beer sponsor of the festival.
Several sponsors are listed for the Toronto Pride Month celebrations, including Amazon, Captain Morgan, Crest, Home Depot, Neutrogena and Sephora.
Bud Light also claims to have provided $100,000 to various organizations that support the LGBTQIA+ community across Canada and has created a line of Bud Light beer cans to commemorate the partnership.
DailyMail.com has contacted Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, for comment.
Bud Light also sponsored a float in the parade, as it celebrated its 10-year partnership with Pride Toronto
The company is also donating $100,000 to various organizations that support the LGBTQIA+ community across Canada.
Bud Light panels were clearly visible on the stage where the dancers were performing
The risque Pride parade took place just weeks after Bud Light apparently co-sponsored an ‘all-ages Pride event’ in Flagstaff, Arizona
The beer company was listed as a sponsor on a poster for the Pride in the Pines event on June 17, but after receiving criticism on Twitter, Flagstaff Pride recalled the poster and released a new one eliminating any mention of it. Bud Light, saying: ‘We posted an incorrect promotional poster, which included Bud Light as a sponsor.
Earlier this month, Bud Light was listed as a sponsor of a “family” Pride event featuring drag queens in Flagstaff, Arizona.
Bud Light executives also denied sponsoring the event, which featured drag queens but was listed as a “family festival event” and a “safe space” for all visitors.
But Bud Light was still listed as a sponsor on the organization’s website, and a Pride in the Pines festival poster on the site said it was “presented by Bud Light”.
The company, however, continues to back away from its ad campaign with Dylan Mulvaney, who released a video announcing that it was teaming up with Bud Light 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.
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.
The beer giant continues to suffer the effects of its disastrous ad campaign featuring trans TikToker Dylan Mulvaney
Bud Light commemorated her first full year as a transgender woman with a beer can depicting her face. He also apparently created Pride beer cans for the Toronto festival.
Since that disastrous advertising campaign, the beer giant has lost its top-selling beer crown in the United States to Modelo, a Mexican lager brewed by Grupo Modelo – which is also owned by Bud maker Anheuser-Busch.
Bud Light sales fell 26.8% for the week ending June 10, the worst week-over-week performance since its advertising campaign in early April.
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 beats the previous worst – a decline of nearly 26% – for the week ending May 25.
Anheuser-Busch’s other U.S. brands – including Budweiser, Michelob Ultra and Natural Light – have also seen a significant drop in sales since the controversy. Bud is down 10%, while Natty Light and Michelob 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.
The once-popular beer company had its worst week of sales, dropping 26.8% the week of June 10
Recently, the marketing director of Anheuser-Busch said the Bud Light partnership with 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. “.
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.
Marcondes has worked at AB InBev for nearly two decades, according to his LinkedIn profile, and now oversees its 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 the 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.
