Trump calls time on Bud Light boycott and says it’s paid the price for partnership with Dylan Mulvaney – and says parent company Anheuser-Busch is a ‘Great American Brand’ that deserves a ‘Second Chance’
Donald Trump has called for an end to the Bud Light boycott sparked by the disastrous campaign featuring trans activist Dylan Mulvaney, suggesting the brand deserves a “second chance.”
The former president said the partnership was a “mistake of epic proportions” for which a “very high price was paid.”
But he insisted parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev was not a “woke company” as he threatened to release a list of companies that are.
His comments came ahead of a meeting with a major Republican lobbyist for the company in March, where tickets sell for $10,000 each.
“Anheuser-Busch spends $700 million annually on our GREAT farmers, employs 65,000 Americans, 1,500 of them veterans, and is a founding member of Folds of Honor, which provides college scholarships to families of fallen servicemen and women,” he wrote . on the social media platform Truth Social.
Donald Trump suggested Bud Light deserved a ‘second chance’ after the boycott of its beers, which occurred after it teamed up with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney
Bud Light sales dropped in early April 2023 due to a conservative backlash after the brand sent a commemorative can to the transgender influencer
“They have raised over $30,000,000 and given 44,000 scholarships. Anheuser-Busch is a great American brand that perhaps deserves a second chance?’
‘What do you think? Maybe instead we should go after the corporations that want to DESTROY AMERICA!’ said the former president.
His comments mark a departure from his previous position in May, when he criticized the makers of Bud Light for pandering to the “radical left.”
Trump then endorsed a conservative author who called the ad campaign “a woke, ignorant, incredibly stupid miscalculation.”
His about-face comes a month before he meets with AB InBev lobbyist Jeff Miller, a close ally of former chairman Kevin McCarthy, who is hosting a fundraiser for the presidential candidate in Washington DC.
Bud Light is the official beer sponsor of the Super Bowl, but has suffered a sales slump since April 2023, when its partnership with Mulvaney began with a personalized can.
The backlash against the marketing ploy was so great that it cost $400 million in sales and caused the beer to lose its U.S. title.
Musician Kid Rock, NFL player Trae Waynes and model Bri Teresi were among the high-profile faces who voiced their disapproval and filmed themselves shooting cans of beer.
The fallout led to a devastating period for Bud Light, where the company suffered double-digit sales declines on an almost weekly basis.
The nationwide backlash against the company’s marketing even led to some stores selling the beer for less than water, as the parent company lost as much as $6 billion in market capital in just six days after the commercial.
The former president said the Mulvaney partnership was a ‘mistake of epic proportions’ for which a ‘very high price was paid’
But he insisted parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev is not a “woke” company, a departure from his previous comments criticizing the beer maker for pandering to the “Radical Left.”
Fans also criticized the company’s response to the controversy, seeing it by some as overcompensating with overtly patriotic advertising to try to right the ship.
As the sales decline continued throughout the year, it hurt the profits of Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world’s largest brewer that produces a wide range of beers including Budweiser, Michelob and Stella Artois.
In August, just months after the Mulvaney ad appeared in April, it was reported that Anheuser-Busch InBev had suffered a staggering $390 million drop in U.S. sales.
The same month, Modelo Especial officially triumphed over Bud Light, as America’s best-selling beer and Bud Light volume fell 26.7 percent.
Meanwhile, sales per 100 liters, an important measure of beer sales, fell to 13.5 percent in the third quarter.
Sales to U.S. retailers also fell 17 percent in the third quarter, largely due to a decline in demand for Bud Light, the company reported.
In November, the company’s Chief Marketing Officer Benoit Garbe announced he would step down after two years due to declining sales.
Bud Light also came under fire from Mulvaney, who slammed the brand for not contacting her during the response.
‘I waited for the brand to contact me, but it didn’t. I was afraid to leave my house,” Mulvaney told her Instagram followers.
“If a company hires a trans person and then doesn’t publicly support them, that’s worse than not hiring a trans person at all.
“Because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want. There should be nothing controversial or divisive about working with us.
‘I have been publicly ridiculed, followed and I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.’
Since then, Mulvaney was named to Forbes’ 30 under 30 list, with the magazine praising her for withstanding the fallout and Mulvaney repeating her accusations that the beer company had thrown her to the wolves.
Bud Light was also criticized by Mulvaney herself, who accused the brand of failing to stand by her amid the anger.
Mulvaney earned $2 million from promotional work in 2023, inked deals with Nike and Mac and recently appeared at the Golden Globes.
She earned $2 million in promotional work by 2023, inked deals with Nike and Mac and recently appeared at the Golden Globes.
Michel Doukeris, CEO of AB InBev, said the company is now focusing its U.S. marketing on more traditional media, such as college football and concerts, as a result of the controversy.
In October, the company announced a multi-year partnership that will make Bud Light the official beer of the mixed martial arts organization UFC. Bud Light was one of the original sponsors of the UFC 15 years ago.
The beer company announced a $3 million scholarship project for families of fallen or disabled U.S. first responders, another longtime partner of Anheuser-Busch.