This Friday, beer producer Anheuser-Busch apologized after sparking controversy over a marketing campaign that featured Bud Light with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The company's chief executive officer, Brendan Whitworth, said in a press release that the intention was not to spark an argument that would divide people.
"We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer," he said after two weeks of silence. Whitworth added that he spends a lot of time traveling around the country listening and learning from customers and promised to continue working on behalf of the brand. However, he stopped short of specifically addressing Mulvaney, the reports of boycotts against the company or the loss of sales.
Breaking 📰: Bud Light has finally responded to the Dylan Mulvaney backlash. ⬇️🍺
The CEO of the brands parent company, Anheuser-Busch has released a statement.
CEO Brendan Whitworth said “we never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.”
The remainder of… pic.twitter.com/7O78FUtkkk
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) April 14, 2023
The fall of its shares
Since April 1, when Bud Light launched its campaign with the transgender influencer, the beer company's value has dropped more than $5 billion, representing about 4%.
Investment experts and analysts said that, although it was unlikely that Anheuser-Busch would go under because of this, the Bud Light brand could suffer significant consequences. "I simply don’t understand why they hired the person who was doing the marketing. I mean, if your target customer is Kid Rock, and then all of a sudden you decide to go to RuPaul, that just doesn’t make any sense at all," opined Ted Jenkin, CEO of Oxygen Financial.
Anheuser-Busch loses more than $5 billion in value amid Dylan Mulvaney Bud Light controversy https://t.co/aBKYG9J3Tu pic.twitter.com/TatceNNibk
— New York Post (@nypost) April 12, 2023
Boycott against Nike
Recently Dylan Mulvaney's participation in a Nike campaign also sparked an outcry against the sportswear brand. Olympic swimmer Sharron Davies was the one who decided to suggest a boycott against the brand, after Nike partnered with the transgender influencer to promote its range of women's clothing that included a sports bra.
"The ad feels like a parody of what women are. In the past it was always seen as an insult to say, 'run like a girl' and here we've got someone behaving in a way that's very un-sporty and very unathletic," she said.
