Bud Light is reportedly planning to buy expired cases of its beer from wholesalers amid backlash over its social media partnership with transgender TikToker Dylan Mulvaney.
“The brewer recently announced to its wholesalers that it would buy back cases of unsold beer that have passed their best before date,” wall street journal Jennifer Maloney reported on Sunday.
The move comes weeks after the publication announced that Bud Light was offering a free case of beer to all wholesaler employees. Companies owned by Anheuser-Busch – beyond Bud Light and Budweiser – have seen a significant drop in sales this year compared to last year as part of the Mulvaney boycott, which began in April.
Instagram/Dylan Mulvaney
Mulvaney posted a video on social media on April 1 in which Mulvaney opened a can of light beer before declaring, “This month I celebrated my 365 day of womanhood.” Mulvaney then showed off a Bud Light can that bore his likeness in the post, along with the caption “#budlightpartner.”
The company suffered significant backlash over the partnership, which included another social media post in February, and sparked a boycott of the Anheuser-Busch brand and other products.
Bud Light case sales fell 24.6% in the week of May 7-13 compared to the same period in 2022, the New York Post reported Monday, citing Nielsen IQ data analyzed by Bump Williams Consulting. This is even worse than the 23.6% drop for the week of April 23-29. Budweiser was down 9.7%, and Anheuser-Busch-owned Michelob Ultra and Natural Light were down 2.9% and 2.8%, respectively, between May 7 and May 13.
Williams told the New York Post This the company is “sick”, adding that it has “now infected other healthy brands with InBev’s portfolio and that’s a bigger issue in my mind”.
Additionally, rivals like Coors Light and Miller Light saw their market share rise last month, while Pabst Blue Ribbon’s sales soared more than 20% year-on-year for several consecutive weeks, according to Bump Williams Consulting analysis.
Breitbart