By Dee-Ann Durbin
Bud Light’s parent company said it will triple its marketing spending in the U.S. this summer as it tries to boost sales that plummeted after the brand partnered with a transgender influencer.
But Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris also downplayed the impact of the backlash, saying Bud Light’s U.S. sales declines in the first three weeks of April represented only 1% of InBev’s global volumes. Doukeris also said the company sees signs that Bud Light demand is stabilizing.
“We believe we have the experience, the resources and the partners to manage this,” Doukeris said during a conference call with investors last week (5/4).
On April 1, transgender influencer Dylan 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. InBev shares temporarily plunged. Within weeks, two marketing executives at Anheuser-Busch–InBev’s U.S. subsidiary–took a leave of absence.
Doukeris didn’t reveal updated sales figures Thursday. But in the week ending April 22, Bud Light’s U.S. sales dropped 21% compared to the same week a year ago, with rivals Miller Lite and Coors Lite appearing to pick up those sales, according to Bump Williams Consulting. Bud Light’s U.S. sales are down 3% so far this year.
Doukeris didn’t mention Mulvaney on during last week’s 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.
After several weeks of silence on social media, Mulvaney posted a video to her Instagram page this week thanking supporters but also not mentioning Bud Light by name.
“What I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel. I don’t think that’s right,” she said. “I’m just going to go ahead and trust that the people who know me and my heart won’t listen to that noise.”
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.
InBev said last week that its revenue increased 13% to $14 billion in the first quarter of this year. Global sales volumes were up 1% thanks to strong demand in Asia.
While those sales beat analysts’ forecasts, the Belgium-based company didn’t upgrade its full-year earnings, saying it’s too early to predict the ups and downs in various markets this year.
Doukeris said InBev will reallocate resources from other markets to support U.S. marketing this summer, with a focus on sports and music festivals. He noted that Bud Light was a sponsor of the recent NFL Draft.
“”Everything we do should be about beer and should promote beer. It is an essential part of life’s meaningful moments, whether in sports, music or celebrations,” he said.
Doukeris said the company needs to better understand the social media landscape and how big brands that want to reach a lot of different kinds of customers might face situations like this one.
“We will always be at the table when important topics are debated, but the beer itself should not be the focus of the debate,” he said.
Dee-Ann Durbin is an AP business writer
After 20 Years of Acting, Megan Park Finds Her Groove In The Director’s Chair On “My Old Ass”
Megan Park feels a little bad that her movie is making so many people cry. It's not just a single tear either — more like full body sobs.
She didn't set out to make a tearjerker with "My Old Ass," now streaming on Prime Video. She just wanted to tell a story about a young woman in conversation with her older self. The film is quite funny (the dialogue between 18-year-old and almost 40-year-old Elliott happens because of a mushroom trip that includes a Justin Bieber cover), but it packs an emotional punch, too.
Writing, Park said, is often her way of working through things. When she put pen to paper on "My Old Ass," she was a new mom and staying in her childhood bedroom during the pandemic. One night, she and her whole nuclear family slept under the same roof. She didn't know it then, but it would be the last time, and she started wondering what it would be like to have known that.
In the film, older Elliott ( Aubrey Plaza ) advises younger Elliott ( Maisy Stella ) to not be so eager to leave her provincial town, her younger brothers and her parents and to slow down and appreciate things as they are. She also tells her to stay away from a guy named Chad who she meets the next day and discovers that, unfortunately, he's quite cute.
At 38, Park is just getting started as a filmmaker. Her first, "The Fallout," in which Jenna Ortega plays a teen in the aftermath of a school shooting, had one of those pandemic releases that didn't even feel real. But it did get the attention of Margot Robbie 's production company LuckyChap Entertainment, who reached out to Park to see what other ideas she had brewing.
"They were very instrumental in encouraging me to go with it," Park said. "They're just really even-keeled, good people, which makes... Read More