A growing boycott of Bud Light over its partnership with a transgender influencer has hurt sales at parent group AB InBev. The Telegraph has more.
AB InBev, which owns Bud Light, Stella Artois, Budweiser and Corona, said on Thursday that sales to retailers in the U.S. fell by 17.4% in the last quarter of 2023, which it blamed primarily on the decline of Bud Light.
The slump is deeper than the 16.6% fall seen in the third quarter of last year and means AB InBev has now suffered three consecutive quarters of double-digit percentage sales falls in the U.S.
AB InBev sold 19.7m hectolitres of beer in the U.S. in the final three months of 2023, compared to 23.4m in the same period of 2022, a decline amounting to roughly 651m pints. Revenues in North America fell 9.5%.
Formerly the U.S.’s best selling beer brand, Bud Light angered American conservatives last year after a marketing tie-up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in April.
Bud Light sent the 26 year-old a personalised beer can to celebrate [his] first year since transitioning gender.
It sparked boycotts from the political Right, who accused the brewer of pursuing a Left-wing agenda. Rapper Kid Rock filmed himself shooting a pack of Bud Light beers with an assault rifle, while former Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis accused AB InBev of associating with “radical social ideologies”.
The brewer also faced backlash from human rights groups on the Left, who criticised the company for not defending or supporting [Mr.] Mulvaney after the marketing stunt.
[Mr.] Mulvaney said [he] faced transphobia and abuse following the partnership and felt abandoned by AB InBev.
Go woke, go broke…
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