Bud light lgbtq controversy
Bud Light, Target, Disney, Kohls and others, are seeing tremendous backlash against their marketing campaigns celebrating the LGBTQ community.
- What do you think Bud Light should have done and what do you think they should do now?
- How will these market conditions impact how your brand supports June’s Gay Pride Month?
Gay Pride Month used to be an easy way for companies to signal support
Several years ago, I started collecting examples of “rainbow washing,” brands connecting to Gay Pride Month in superficial ways, not backed by anything meaningful. I had meant to write an article about how marketing around queer pride was starting to feel like “green washing”– empty virtue signaling around environmental sustainability. While many brands were taking a thoughtful and heartfelt approach and were putting in the work around gender equity, others just phoned it in.
Superficial Gay Pride Month rainbow washing was never a good idea. Now, it has become extremely risky. Brands need to get a considered and deliberate approach to the issue. And Bud Light has some serious work to do.
Will the LGBTQ controversy change gay pride marketing?
The days when a logo could pop a rainbow on
Bud Light still struggles to recover from anti-trans boycott
Beverage maker Anheuser-Busch, the firm behind beers like Budweiser, Busch, Natural Light and Stella Artois, reported better-than-expected Q1 results Wednesday morning.
Last April, Bud Light became the target of a conservative boycott over a 45-second promotional video posted by a transgender influencer. The company is leisurely recovering from that episode; U.S. revenues were down 9% in the first quarter compared to the year before, which is actually an improvement over the 17% decline in the final quarter of last year.
Lots of brands faced anti-trans fury last year, but Target and Nike sales didn’t grab a sustained hit.
Bud Glow was vulnerable as a politically middle-of-the-road brand, according to Cornell associate professor Jura Liaukonyte. It’s also really replaceable.
“The big illuminated beers in the Combined States are completely undifferentiated,” she said.
Switching to Miller Light isn’t really a sacrifice, because it tastes basically the identical. That’s true for consumers and retailers.
“The shelf cosmos for Bud Light has changed,” Liaukonyte said.
Another problem for Bud Illumination was its corporate response to
Bud Light sales plunged after boycott over campaign with non-binary influencer, company reveals
Anheuser-Busch Inbev reported a drop in U.S. revenue in the second quarter as Bud Light sales plunged amid a conservative backlash over a campaign with gender diverse influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The world’s largest brewer said Thursday that revenue in the United States declined by 10.5% in the April-to-June period from a year earlier, “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light.”
It has lost its place as America’s best-selling beer after more than two decades, slipping into second place in June behind Mexican lager Modelo Especial, which is also owned by the Belgium-based ABInBev.
The company faced blowback after sending a commemorative Bud Light can to Mulvaney, who posted it to her millions of social media followers.
Conservative figures and others called for a boycott of Bud Clear, while Mulvaney’s supporters criticized the beer brand for not doing enough to support her. Mulvaney has said she faced bullying and transphobia, criticizing the identity for not reaching out to her amid the furor over their partnership.
The beer giant said overall revenue rose 7.2% in the second q
AB InBev Rainbow-Washing Exposed in Transgender Controversy
Rainbow marketing gone wrong and betrayed values
In 2023 the beer colossal Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) has been dealing with a steep sales slump of one of its biggest beers brands, Bud Light.
Bud Light caused a controversy when it entered into a partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, 26. Its decision to send a customized can to her sparked a transphobic backlash and alienated the core customer base. AB InBev’s subsequent response then angered members of the LGBTQ community.
Ms. Mulvany is a Broadway actor and influencer who has spent the past year documenting her gender transition to a substantial audience of old and new fans.
Months after Bud Light was featured in a social media promotion by Ms. Mulvaney, the beer giant is still dealing with the fallout.
Bud Light has faced a boycott from some conservative commentators and celebrities as its sales have plummeted and two of its marketing executives have gone on exit. It was also criticized by some in the L.G.B.T.Q. community for its tepid response to the backlash.
The criticism of Bud Light, amid other complaints about brand partnerships with
‘Panic and rash decision-making’: ex-Bud Light staff on one of the biggest boycotts in US history
When Anheuser-Busch InBev, the multinational beer business, promoted Alissa Heinerscheid to vice-president of marketing for Bud Light in July 2022, she became the first female VP in the beer’s 40-year history. “It’s just former white men,” says one former employee of the organization leadership. “That’s why we were thrilled to at least have Alissa in that role.”
In a March 2023 interview with the lifestyle podcast Make Yourself At Home, Heinerscheid spoke of her remit. “I had a really obvious job to complete when I took over Bud Bright, and it was: ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long period, and if we do not appeal to young drinkers to come and liquor this brand, there will be no future for Bud Light.’” Part of that involved updating the marketing to be “lighter, brighter” and more inclusive. “Bud Light had […] a logo of fratty, courteous of out-of-touch humor,” Heinerscheid said.
Instead of ensuring a prosperous future for Bud Light, Heinerscheid’s tenure was marked by a sharp decline in sales and one of the biggest boycotts of a brand in US history, after a minor social med