As Anheuser Busch continues supporting alphabet “pride” and transgender grooming rallies around the nation, the sales of their products continue declining. However, that did not stop the marketing and advertising sector from awarding “creative marketer of the year” to Anheuser Busch at Cannes Lions, which is dubbed the “Oscars for the advertising industry.”

[New York Post] – Sales of Bud Light suffered their steepest weekly drop yet since the beer brand launched its disastrous tie-up with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney, according to the latest data.

In the week ending June 17, sales of the Anheuser-Busch brand fell by an eye-popping 28.5% versus a year ago, according to the most recent sales figures issued by Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ.

That eclipses last week’s 26.8% decline, which beat the previous week’s fall of 24.4%.

Bud Light’s sister brands under the Anheuser-Busch umbrella also experienced lagging sales in the seven-day period which ended June 17, according to the data.

Sales of Budweiser dropped 12.3% while another Anheuser-Busch brand, Michelob Ultra, fell by 4%. (read more)

This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise given the negative brand image now created for the product. Factually, the only thing that can reverse the trend for the product is time and diminished memory. As consumers associate the brand with a lifestyle, the use of the product will continue to drop. Holding a Bud Light beverage right now is akin to identifying yourself as a transfemme, or wearing pink pants.

Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris reportedly addressed the ongoing boycott’s impact on delivery drivers, salespeople, and wholesalers on a recent earnings call. It is a little bit odd to see A/B positioning themselves as victims of their customers.

“This situation has impacted our people and especially our frontline workers: The delivery drivers, sales representatives, our wholesalers, Bud owners and servers,” Doukeris said, according to ABC News. “These people are the fabric of our business. They are our neighbors, family members, and friends. They are in every community in America. We’ve been doing everything we can to support our teams.”

It would appear that Anheuser-Busch the corporation, are refusing to accept or acknowledge their responsibility in creating this crisis for their brand.  The brand image issue was not forced upon them.  These were decisions made by the marketing division of the company, and now they place blame for the consequences on their customers.

Every time, in every story, in every print and broadcast update, as the ongoing events are told or written – every visual aide that accompanies the news includes that weird guy with the Bud Light beer in his hand.

This is now a bizarre marketing self-fulfilling prophecy. The articles and news telling updates to the story are now optically affirming the Bud Light brand as a beverage exclusively for transgenders.  This level of ongoing public relations failure is something for the record books.

 

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