Coors Light refuses to pull out of sponsoring Denver Pride Parade despite potential backlash
Despite recent backlash over rival Bud Light’s support of the LGBTQ+ community, Coors Light remains the title sponsor of Denver’s Pride Parade.
Bud Light producer Anheuser-Busch lost $27 billion in value over a campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney that upset conservatives. Then the company also upset progressives after failing to support Mulvaney through the backlash.
Molson Coors, headquartered in Golden, about 15 miles west of Denver, is standing by, while the parade remains “The Coors Light Denver Pride Parade” scheduled for Sunday.
Several or large companies have supported the event — which is expected to attract more than 100,000 attendees on Sunday — such as fellow alcohol manufacturer Absolut and companies like Verizon, Visa, Walmart, Amazon and Target.
However, local LGBTQ+ rights leaders see Coors sticking to the parade as a huge moment where it could be seen as a damaging business decision in the wake of the Mulvaney controversy.
Despite fierce backlash recently over rival Bud Light’s support of the LGBTQ+ community, Coors Light remains the title sponsor of Denver’s Pride Parade
Molson Coors, headquartered in Golden, about 15 miles west of Denver, is standing by, while the parade remains “The Coors Light Denver Pride Parade” scheduled for Sunday
“This is kind of the hard part of allying,” Rex Fuller, the CEO of the Gay Lesbian Bisexual and Transgender Community Center of Colorado parade organizer, told Axios.
“We’re at a time when it can be quite fashionable in some corners to express homophobic, transphobic (feelings) and racism quite openly, and I think that can be uncomfortable at times.”
Adam Collins, Chief Communications and Corporate Affairs Officer of Molson Coors, issued a statement Fox news stand at the parade.
“At the end of a long day or the start of a great evening, everyone deserves to feel comfortable with a drink and be themselves,” Collins said.
“That’s why beer, wine and spirits companies like ours have supported Pride for decades, why we will in 2023 and why we will continue to do so for decades to come,” he added.
Anheuser-Busch has been dealing with the scandal ever since Mulvaney posted cans the company sent designed specifically to celebrate her first year as a “girl” in April.
After Anheuser-Busch attempted to distance itself from the Mulvaney promotion, Bud Light also faced backlash from the opposite direction, with pro-LGBTQ groups accusing the company of abandoning the transgender influencer.
Several gay bars in Chicago have also decided to drop all Anheuser-Busch products, arguing that the company has turned its back on the LGBTQ+ community.
A photo from Denver Pride 2022. Local LGBTQ+ rights leaders view Coors sticking with the parade as a huge moment where it could be viewed as a damaging business decision in the wake of the Dylan Mulvaney controversy
Anheuser-Busch has been dealing with the scandal since Mulvaney posted cans the company sent specially designed to celebrate her first year as a “girl” in April
Anheuser-Busch has been dealing with the scandal since Mulvaney posted cans the company sent specially designed to celebrate her first year as a “girl” in April
The company has since lost billions of dollars in market cap and continues to be boycotted by tens of millions of former consumers.
Earlier this month, Modelo especial dethroned Bud Light as the top US beer as its sales are up more than 15 percent from the same time a year ago.
Bud Light’s parent company said earlier this month that it will triple its marketing spending in the US this summer to boost ailing sales.
Michel Doukeris, CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, downplayed the impact of the setback, saying that Bud Light sales declines in the first three weeks of April in the US represented only 1 percent of InBev’s global volumes.
“We think we have the experience, the resources and the partners to manage this,” Doukeris said on a conference call with investors earlier this month.
The Belgium-based brewer sent two executives responsible for the partnership — Alissa Heinerscheid, its vice president of marketing, and her boss, Daniel Blake — on leave in April.
The executive was hired in June 2022 to overhaul Bud Light’s marketing with a vision to refresh its image, while Blake spent nearly nine years at Anheuser-Busch.
Heinerscheid’s short-lived tenure reportedly included a critically acclaimed Super Bowl ad featuring Miles Teller and his wife Keleigh Sperry, as well as “the Bud Light Carry” campaign in which a woman carried a round of beer to a table of friends without spilling a drop . .
Those ads, statements by the beer brand revealed, were part of Heinerscheid’s vision to make the brand more female-friendly — something she described as a “passion point” just a few months ago.