EXCLUSIVE: Anti-woke ‘patriotic’ marketplace reveals user count has DOUBLE since Bud Light boycott over Dylan Mulvaney began
- PublicSq tries to match conservative shoppers with like-minded businesses
- It says that since April 1, the number of users has almost doubled to one million
- That coincides with the trans controversy that led to a boycott of Bud Light
An “anti-woke” online marketplace says it nearly doubled its user base during a boycott of Bud Light for a promotional pairing with a transgender social media star.
On Tuesday, Bud Light sales had continued to fall as PublicSq, which markets itself as a patriotic, America-first alternative to Amazon, said its engagement had skyrocketed.
It recorded just over a million active consumers as of May 31, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, compared to about 560,000 as of March 31.
The Bud Light boycott began in early April.
Michael Seifert, founder and CEO of PublicSq said: “The past few months have shown that tens of millions of Americans are dying for companies that share their values.
“PublicSq connects freedom-loving Americans with companies that respect them.”
Conservative online marketplace PublicSq has seen its user base double since early April, when the Bud Light boycott began
Public Square, founded by Michael Seifert (right), launched nationwide in July. It counts Donald Trump Jr. as an investor and advisor
Launched nationwide seven months ago, the San-Diego company is now home to more than 55,000 “patriotic” vendors.
And it has attracted conservative heavyweights like Donald Trump Jr., an investor and adviser, and former Arizona senate candidate Blake Masters.
Their goal is to build a “parallel economy” where consumers don’t have to buy from sellers whose political values don’t align with their own.
“Connecting freedom-loving Americans with the companies that share their values,” the website reads.
It’s because leading conservative voices have stepped up their ‘war on wake’, condemning investment firms that promise to factor environmental, social and governance factors into decision making, for example.
Against that backdrop, brewer Anheuser-Busch found itself in controversy when it partnered with Mulvaney.
She posted a video of herself breaking open a Bud Light on her Instagram page on April 1.
In it, she showed off a custom can with an image of her face – one of the many business freebies she promotes to her millions of followers.
The beer company saw sales plummet in early April after 26-year-old Mulvaney appeared on a beer can to celebrate her 365th day as a girl.
The company’s sales fell 23.9 percent for the weekend ending May 27 compared to the same time last year. However, the company has seen a small uptick in sales compared to last week – where the drop was 25.7 percent
Bud Light was accused of alienating their traditional customer base by partnering with Mulvaney, which led many conservatives – including Kid Rock – to boycott the brand
Three days after Mulvaney’s post, Kid Rock posted a video of him shooting boxes of Bud Light, and country music stars John Rich and Travis Tritt publicly denounced the brand.
Within weeks, two marketing executives at Anheuser-Busch took a leave of absence. It is unclear whether they have returned to work yet.
A boycott of the beer has severely affected sales.
Sales of the beer fell 23.9 percent in the week ending May 27 compared to the same time last year, though that was a slight improvement from last week, when sales fell 25.7 percent.
Bud Light also lost nearly 28 percent in year-over-year volume for the week ending May 27.