Local vendors in Arkansas reported sales of Bud Light have “slowed down some” as the beer brand continues to face headwinds over its marketing tie-up with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Bryan Johnson, the manager of Bud’s Liquor in Hot Springs, Ark., told The Hot Springs Sentinel-Record that the controversy has hurt sales of Anheuser-Busch’s top-selling brand.
“It’s slowed down some,” Johnson said.
Bars in other states including Wyoming also reported a noticeable drop in sales of Bud Light.
And a viral video from a recent Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park showed baseball fans seemingly shunning the Bud Light vendor for other concession stands.
Last week, figures showed that Bud Light sales dropped by 21% in the week ending April 22 — the third consecutive seven-day period during which fewer customers were buying the beer.
Meanwhile, rivals such as Miller Lite and Coors Lite have seen an uptick in sales, according to Bump Williams Consulting.
Johnson thinks that once the controversy eventually dies down, sales of Bud Light will pick up again.
“It won’t last,” said Johnson. “It’ll pick back up. When the news cycle changes, it’ll change. New headline.”
Some owners and operators of liquor stores in Arkansas said they haven’t noticed a drop off in Bud Light sales.
“We’ve been steady,” Gurdeep Singh, manager of J & B Party Center, told The Sentinal-Record.
Anheuser-Busch said on Thursday it will triple its marketing spending in the US this summer as it tries to boost sales that plummeted after the brand partnered with Mulvaney.
On April 1, Mulvaney posted a video of herself cracking open a Bud Light on her Instagram page.
She showed off a can with her face on it that Bud Light sent her — one of many corporate freebies she gets and shares with her millions of followers.
Three days after Mulvaney’s post, Kid Rock posted a video of himself shooting cases of Bud Light.
Shares of AB InBev, the Belgian conglomerate that owns Anheuser-Busch, temporarily plunged.
Within weeks, two marketing executives at Anheuser-Busch were placed on leave.
Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris last week didn’t mention Mulvaney during an investor call but decried misinformation about the promotion.
Cans featuring Mulvaney weren’t made to be sold to the general public, for example.
“This was one can, one influencer, one post and not a campaign,” he said.
Doukeris said InBev is providing financial support to delivery drivers, sales representatives, wholesalers and others who are struggling with Bud Light’s sales declines. He didn’t say how much the company is spending.
Doukeris also downplayed the impact of the backlash, saying Bud Light’s US sales declines in the first three weeks of April represented only 1% of InBev’s global volumes.
With Post Wires
This story originally appeared on NYPost
