Bud Light donates $200,000 to LGBTQ group in wake of Dylan Mulvaney fiasco

Bud Light announced Tuesday that it is donating $200,000 to the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce in support of its Communities of Color Initiative as the company continues to struggle in the wake of the Dylan Mulvaney scandal.

The once-popular beer brand in America continues to bleed market value in the wake of its April collaboration with transgender Dylan Mulvaney.

The partnership sparked protests and backlash, and parent company Anheuser-Busch has lost $26 billion in value in just months.

Bud Light’s latest donation to the LGBTQ community is an extension of a partnership established last year between the company and the NGLCC, and a continuation of Bud Light and parent company Anheuser-Busch’s longstanding work with the LGBTQ community.

“This initiative aims to support the growth and success of LGBTQ+ minority businesses through certification, grants and business development in an effort to create equal opportunity for the economic advancement of small businesses in the LGBTQ+ community,” said a statement. Edition announcement of the initiative.

For the week ending May 20, Bud Light sales were down 25.7% from the same week a year ago as the company continues to struggle

Cases of Bud Light are seen discounted at a Florida store. During the four weeks through May 20, Bud Light sales were down 24.3 percent from last year

“The brand will also support NGLCC’s first-ever CoCi Biz Pitch Program, where the winning LGBTQ+ minority business owner will receive $5,000 and the opportunity to participate in the 2023 NGLCC International Business & Leadership Conference LGBT Biz Pitch Competition for $50,000 in cash and prizes.”

Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, has seen its market value plummet since the disastrous campaign involving transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Shares fell to a new eight-month low of $53 on Wednesday. AB’s total revenue is down 10 percent compared to the same time last year.

Since April 1, the company has consistently lost value as experts say the situation is “getting a little bit worse every week.”

However, AB’s competitors have added $3.2 billion in market value to their brands in the same time.

Molson Coors, owner of Coors Lite, has seen a $2.2 billion increase in market value, about 20 percent, while Heineken has enjoyed a peak of $1 billion – up 1.7 percent.

Experts continue to predict bad news for Bud Light. “We believe there is a portion of U.S. consumers who will not be drinking Bud Light for the foreseeable future,” JPMorgan analysts wrote in a note to clients last week.

The collaboration between Mulvaney and Bud Light led to immediate reactions and boycotts

Bud Light has tried to win back consumers by offering hefty discounts, but store shelves remain stocked with the brand

In the company’s latest efforts to deal with the backlash, Anheuser-Busch has told wholesalers it will buy back unsold cases of past-expired Bud Light.

The company is also turning to its more traditional advertising themes to win back consumers and improve its image.

Recently, the company switched to offering deep discounts for people who buy Bud Light. A $15 discount was offered online over Memorial Day weekend, which would have made a box of Bud Light free in some places.

Commentator Ashley St. Clair shared a photo of an offer on Twitter and mocked it.

“Bud Light’s marketing team should still be all-female if they think a coupon will get a man’s attention,” she wrote.

Despite the efforts of Bud Light and CEO Michel Doukeris, the brand has not seen a sales recovery since partnering with Mulvaney.

About two months ago, Mulvaney posted the digital content to her accounts to coincide with the NCAA March Madness tournament — joking that she wasn’t even sure what sport she was promoting.

The campaign was the brainchild of Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing for Bud Light, who was put on leave shortly after the incident. Her boss, Daniel Blake, the Budweiser group’s vice president of marketing, was also relieved of his role in the resistance.

For the week ending May 6, Bud Light retail sales in the US were down 23.6 percent compared to the previous year. And the week before, ending April 29, sales were down 23.3 percent.

This follows declines in sales in the week ending April 22, which saw a 21.4 percent decline. Seven days earlier, the dip was 17 percent, according to NielsenIQ data provided to Dailymail.com by Bump Williams Consultancy.

Since April 1, when Mulvaney posted the ad to Bud Light, the company has continued to lose money, as experts say it’s “getting a little bit worse every week.”

The data – which shows Bud Light sales in the US are dropping by as much as 20 percent per week – is uniformly viewed by industry experts as a negative trend that may not reverse anytime soon.

Beer Business Daily editor Harry Schuhmacher told Fox News Digital that the “entire industry is in shock.”

He claimed that the renewed demand for bearings not owned by Anheuser-Bush could lead to a trickle down effect on the industry.

He said, “Even Bud’s competitors don’t really dance on the grave because they know it could have happened to them.

“You can’t just flip a switch and make beer. You know, beer is brewed. It takes, you know, at least a few weeks to make.’

Across all social media platforms, Bud Light has turned off the reply function in the wake of intense online backlash over its partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which has led to a national boycott of Anheuser-Busch products.

The company hasn’t posted to Twitter since April 14, opting to skip Memorial Day weekend, when beer consumption is part of many celebrations. The last message from the brand read ‘TGIF?’ with an image of the iconic blue can.