Breaking Digest reported that Bud Light partnered with Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male who pretends to be a woman, to celebrate his “365 days of womanhood.”
Anheuser-Busch has received massive backlash due to its decision to partner with Mulvaney as a brand ambassador for Bud Light.
As part of its campaign with Mulvaney, Anheuser-Busch created packs of Bud Light that feature his image.
Mulvaney announced he was a paid influencer for Bud Light in an Instagram post on Saturday. “This month I celebrated my day 365 of womanhood, and Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever — a can with my face on it,” the biological male said.
Since the campaign was launched on April 1st, many initially assumed it was an April Fool’s prank, but quickly learned that it wasn’t.
“Check out my Instagram story to see how you can enjoy March Madness with Bud Light and maybe win some money too. Love ya. Cheers! Go Team! Whatever team you love, I love too.”
Watch:
Social media backlash was swift and severe.
Music legend Kid Rock responded by sharing a video of himself shooting up several packs of Bud Light.
“F*ck Bud Light!” he declared.
Watch:
Country music star Travis Tritt followed suit and announced he is boycotting Bud Light from his tour.
PR experts say there is now actual evidence that hiring Mulvaney as the face of Bud Light has completely destroyed the beer’s brand.
The Daily Mail reported:
A PR expert has now told DailyMail.com that the decision by Bud Light and their parent company Anheuser-Busch to link up with Dylan Mulvaney was a mistake.
I really cannot understand their approach for this because their core audience just cannot relate.
Cutting your core audience in the hope you can draw a completely new audience in, who haven’t been exposed before, doesn’t make sense.
Most US families are exposed to their father drinking the beer, or other family members, but it has never been seen as the cool beer.
Kid Rock is the poster boy for Bud Light, and for someone like him to come out and shoot cans it tells you a lot about the reaction from their core base customers.
People pouring beer down their sink, it says quite a bit about how out of touch they have been with this campaign.
Caitlin Wiggins, Director of Marketing at Liquified Creative, also told DailyMail.com that they would not have advised Bud Light to go with the campaign.
She said: ‘They are going to have to say something publicly, obviously you are going to get a mix of negative and positive reactions, it doesn’t matter on the stance.
But a lot of the response has fallen under a demographic of a Kid Rock fan, or a typical Bud Light consumer.
As a professional I wouldn’t have recommended something that is such a 180 from their typical marketing and demographic.
Now liquor stores are announcing that they have joined the boycott by pulling Bud Light from their shelves and refusing orders.
A viral tweet, which has over 4.5 million views and over 93,000 likes, is an example of the hurdles that Anheuser-Busch could now be facing.
The liquor store boycott has been applauded on social media.
Anheuser-Busch appears unphased by potentially crippling its sales.
In fact, the multi-billion-dollar conglomerate stands behind its get woke, go broke marketing strategy.
“Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics and passion points. From time to time, we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public,” an Anheuser-Busch representative told FOX News.
