Bud Light sales fell 26 PERCENT from a year ago amid Dylan Mulvaney backlash

Bud Light beer sales are down more than a quarter year-over-year after the disastrous partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

The beer brand gifted Mulvaney personalized cans featuring her face, which she advertised on April 1.

Fans of the beer are outraged: a boycott was declared, Kid Rock used Bud Light cans for target practice, and $5 billion was wiped from the brand’s value. Two senior marketing executives have taken leave amid the fiasco.

On Sunday, Beer business daily reported that beer sales volume off-premises — that is, the amount of beer sold outside restaurants and bars — was down 26.1 percent from a year earlier in the week ending April 22.

Sales fell 21.1 percent last week. While competitors, Coors Light and Miller Lite, saw consumers turn to their brands as both had an increase in sales.

So far this year, Bud Light volumes are down 8 percent.

“Bud Light Blue’s shocking market share decline continued rapidly into the third week of April – and somehow got worse. We have never seen such a dramatic shift in national share in such a short time,” Beer Business Daily wrote on its website.

Coors Light volume was up 13.3 percent in the same period and Miller Lite was up 13.6 percent.

Last week, senior executives from parent company Anheuser-Busch held a closed-door meeting with distributors in Washington, D.C., outlining plans for the future — and vowed, according to reports, to “spend heavily” on Bud Light to save its public image.

Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights, said spending on the brand “fell off a cliff last year,” but Anheuser-Busch leaders vow to rectify the situation, New York Post reported.

Mulvaney, 26, announced the partnership in a series of videos posted to social media in early April

Mulvaney was sent a personalized beer can to mark 365 days since her transition. Mulvaney documented her journey on TikTok and gained millions of online followers

On top of the marketing blitz, executives working for Bud Light will also go through a stricter screening process, according to a Northeast-based beer distributor who spoke to The New York Post.

“There will be an improved screening process before any marketing reaches the public. Executives will have to go through a stricter screening process,” Bud Light’s execs said at Zoom meetings this month.

Last month, Donald Trump Jr. called for an end to the Bud Light boycott, in a video posted to his Rumble channel.

During his message, Trump Jr. the brewer’s conservative credentials and said it was wrong to “blame the entire company for the inaction or stupidity of someone in a marketing campaign that woke up like hell.”

Trump Jr said he investigated Anheuser-Busch and saw that they donated primarily to Republicans, saying his fellow conservatives sometimes “tended to shoot first and aim second.”

In the video, the former president’s son pointed to Anheuser-Busch’s support of Republicans, including Ohio Senator JD Vance and California Rep. Kevin McCarthy.

Donald Trump Jr said Thursday he thought the Bud Light boycott should end

Dylan Mulvaney made the announcement of the collaboration himself on Instagram on April 1

Trump Jr. said the decision to partner with Mulvaney was reportedly made by a low-level marketing executive, rather than the senior executives.

“We looked at Anheuser-Busch’s history of political giving and lobbying. Guess what? They actually support Republicans,” Trump Jr. said.

Last cycle, their employees and their PAC gave about 60 percent to Republicans and 40 percent to Democrats. That’s literally almost unheard of in corporate America, where it’s very easy to wake up, where they do it all the time, where it has a consequence to be conservative. So 60/40 on the conservative side is quite something.”

The 45-year-old said he also respected the St. Louis-based beer company’s corporate approach.

“On the lobbying front, we looked at the bills that Anheuser-Busch was working on,” he said.

“You know what they’re focused on, guys? They have focused on taxes and trade issues that actually affect their business. They didn’t lobbied for, say, the random pet issues of the day and the nonsense and the BLM nonsense — I didn’t find that — they focused on the things that affect their work.”

The CEO, Brendan Whitworth, is a former Navy and CIA agent who has been registered as a Republican for most of his adult life.

Brendan Whitworth, 46, has been the CEO of Anheuser-Busch since July 2021. His company is now in the middle of a storm over their decision to partner with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney

Whitworth issued a public statement two weeks after the controversy

Trump Jr said he disagreed with boycotting a 170-year-old company over one mistake.

“So here’s the deal,” he said.

“Anheuser-Busch totally ruined the bed with that Dylan Mulvaney thing.

“However, I am not in favor of destroying an American and iconic company for something like this.”

He added, “When I really look at it, I’m not going to blame the entire company for the inaction or the stupidity of someone in a marketing campaign who woke up like hell.

“The company itself doesn’t participate in the same left-wing nonsense as the other big conglomerates.”

He said he likes to “go after people when they screw up,” but felt the Bud Light boycott had gone too far.

His comments echo those of Howard Stern and Joe Rogan, who both argued it was exaggerated.

“I think sometimes we tend to shoot first and aim second without looking into the details,” Trump Jr. said.

He concluded, “So they’ve been notified. I leave them alone.

“I think you should probably do the same – if they do it again – they’ve been warned.”