Anheuser-Busch Exec Says Bud Light Controversy Was An 'Important Wake-Up Call'

An executive at Anheuser-Busch InBev, the international beer company that oversees Anheuser-Busch, said the controversy that followed a Bud Light partnership with transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney was an “important wake-up call.”

“In times like this, when things get divisive and controversial so easily, I think it’s an important wake-up call to all of us marketers, for us to be very humble,” Marcel Marcondes, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s global chief marketing officer, said on Monday, according to AdWeek’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity coverage.

Bud Light had been the best-selling U.S. beer for more than two decades until April, when right-wingers worked themselves into a transphobic rage over the company’s marketing partnership with Mulvaney. Musicians Kid Rock, Travis Tritt and John Rich joined politicians like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in a frothy boycott.

Anheuser-Busch said nothing in support of Mulvaney, and that only worsened the disaster. The Human Rights Campaign suspended the company’s equality and inclusion rating, and Bud Light sales plunged. The brand lost its U.S. bestseller crown to Modelo Especial in June, when Bud Light sales dropped 24% from a year earlier.

“It’s tough to see all the controversial and divisive debates happening in the U.S. the last couple of weeks involving lots of brands and companies, including, especially, Bud Light,” Marcondes said.

Other companies also have faced right-wing backlash for inclusive marketing and employment pitches, including Target and Cracker Barrel.

Anheuser-Busch, in a statement last week, acknowledged that the discussion around Bud Light had “moved away from beer.”

“We are a beer company, and beer is for everyone,” the company said.

The company added that its summer advertising will showcase Bud Light as “reinforcing what you’ve always loved about our brand — that it’s easy to drink and easy to enjoy.”