Parent company Bud Light Anheuser-Busch’s main website has gone offline for unknown reasons, after the beer brand stirred controversy by partnering with transgender influencer in its latest campaign.
“The page cannot be displayed due to an internal server error,” read a message on the Anheuser-Busch.com website at noon Wednesday.
The outage appears to only affect the Anheuser-Busch site, while websites for the company’s brands such as Bud Light and Busch Light remained operational.
The website of AB InBev, the Belgian multinational that owns St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch, was also operating normally. AB InBev did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Emails to Anheuser-Busch seeking comment were not immediately returned, and the company’s phone messaging system directed inquiries to the non-functioning website.
Parent company Bud Light Anheuser-Busch’s main website has gone offline for unknown reasons, displaying a message indicating “internal server error” (file photo)
An error message appeared on Anheuser-Busch’s website Wednesday afternoon
It was not immediately clear if the site outage was due to routine technical issues, or it could have been the result of a malicious attack.
However, the outage lasted at least an hour. one security researcher,
The outage came several days after Bud Light’s partnership with animated content creator Dylan Mulvaney caused backlash.
Singer Kid Rock responded with a video of himself shooting beer cases with an AR-15 rifle, a troubling stunt that has generated its own controversy.
In the video posted Monday, the artist turns to the camera after shooting a beer, raises his middle finger and declares, “F*** Bud Light and f*** Anheuser-Busch!”
Mulvaney, 26, announced the brand partnership in a series of videos posted to social media over the weekend to coincide with the final four games of the NCAA March Madness Tournament.
The influencer was also honored with a commemorative beer can with her face imprinted on it, to celebrate the one-year anniversary of the popular TikTok video series documenting her gender transition.
Earlier Thursday, a public relations expert told DailyMail.com that the decision by Bud Light and parent company Anheuser-Busch to associate with Mulvaney was a mistake.
Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender social media influencer, has been chosen as the brand ambassador for Bud Light, a choice that has drawn intense reactions from some fans.
In the video posted Monday, Kid Rock turns to the camera after shooting a beer, raises his middle finger and declares “F*** Bud Light and f*** Anheuser-Busch!”
Gareth Boyd, Director of Marketing and Public Relations Forte AnalyticaHe says that while he can understand where the decision came from, it is “not the right way to make that decision”.
Speaking to DailyMail.com, he said, “I can’t really understand their approach to this because their core audience just can’t relate.
“Cutting out your core audience and hoping you can attract a completely new, previously undiscovered audience just doesn’t make sense.
Most American families are exposed to beer drinking of their father, or other family members, but it was not seen as a great beer.
In terms of what they’ve done this year has been pretty good, with the Superbowl, but now they’ve come off the back of something really good and set it on fire.
“Kid Rock is the poster boy for Bud Light, and for someone like him to go out and shoot cans, that tells you a lot about the reaction of the core customers.”
“People are pouring beer in their sink, it says a little bit about how disconnected they are from this campaign.”
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