Bud Light backlash

Bud Light has faced calls for boycotts in the US after it paid a transgender actor and influencer to promote its beer.?

On 1 April Dylan Mulvaney, who has built a large social media following by documenting her transition,?posted?a video to Instagram in which she made jokes about March Madness (the US basketball tournament) and directed viewers towards a promotional contest.?

It was an almost inconsequential bit of marketing for a brand of Bud Light’s size. But within days the partnership had become a cause célèbre among conservative media and politicians, who argued that Bud Light was turning its back on its core audience to promote a left-wing gender ideology. As the story gained traction, regular customers seemingly took to social media to voice their disapproval too. Singer Kid Rock shared a?video?of himself destroying a case of the beer with a machine gun.?

In the wake of the controversy, Bud Light appears to have stopped posting on social media, and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch, has only peeped above the parapet to issue a vague statement about how it works with lots of influencers in order to connect with different audiences, etc.?

If the tepid response is because executives at Anheuser-Busch are nervous, there is precedent to suggest they needn’t be. While there are some?stories?doing the rounds about retailers unable to shift Bud Light from the shop floor and distributors getting nervous, brand boycotts like this have a history of barking worse than they bite.?

Nor has the response been all negative. Bud Light has won praise from some quarters for partnering with Mulvaney. While left-wing media outlets have covered the controversy within the context of Republicans using transgender rights as a wedge issue ahead of the 2024 presidential election, and also pointed out that Budweiser has a history of supporting LGBT causes.?

In fact, Anheuser-Busch can probably take comfort in the words of Phil Knight, the co-founder of Nike (which has, incidentally, also come?under fire?for partnering with Mulvaney): ‘It doesn’t matter how many people hate your brand as long as enough people love it.’?

And while it’s become a bit of a hackneyed thing to point out, there’s something to be said about the publicity benefits for brands in a media storm (as long as it has nothing to do with the quality or safety of the product). It is without doubt an uncomfortable thing for any company to go through, but there's a decent chance that the only thing the majority of people will remember from this episode is the name Bud Light.

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