Anheuser-Busch Inbev said Tuesday that revenue growth in most of its global regions was offset by a drop in North American sales, in a sign of continuing fallout from a promotion with a transgender influencer that cost it sales.
The world’s largest brewer and parent company of Bud Light said adjusted earnings for the latest quarter rose 4.1% to $5.4 billion on revenues that climbed 5% to $15.6 billion.
Revenue in the United States for the July-September period, however, tumbled 13.5%. AB InBev, based in Leuven, Belgium, noted that sales to retailers were down “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light.”
Bud Light sales plunged amid a conservative backlash after the brand sent a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in early April.
That’s really overselling what it was. They made ONE can with the special print, the also made a number of other special cans for other influencers that weren’t “woke”. This was supposed to be a quiet nod to the LGBTQ+ community, which also drinks a reasonable amount of bud light, just like the rainbow tap handle my local gay bar has for it on tap.
How or why the right-wing outrage machine landed on this as the outrage du jour, who knows? But they and most major brands do stuff like this all the time, they just got really unlucky.
Also worth noting, beer sales in general, and especially big brand light lagers have been declining. Attributing all of Bud Lights decline to this one instance ignores a lot of other trends.
Yeah I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if this was calculated to coincide with the decline. It’s a nice easy win to call for a boycott of something of declining popularity.