Bud Light seems to just experiencing one joy after another.
Since transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s fateful Instagram post featuring her face on a single Bud Light tall boy, Anheuser-Busch has been mired in controversy, months of conservative anti-trans boycotts, and declining sales – not to mention pissed-off conservative consumers. Its market share has “collapsed“. They fired the brand’s VP of marketing – angry customers still opened fire on Bud Light cases, using it as “target practice”. In partnering with Mulvaney, conservatives said Anheuser-Busch “insulted Main Street America” and it was now suffering the consequences.
Meanwhile, simultaneously, Bud Light has managed to squander any support it once had in the gay and LGBTQ communities. Having “caved” to conservatives by ending its support of and partnership with Mulvaney, Anheuser-Busch lost their Corporate Equality Index score. Bud Light announced an initiative with LGBTQ+ business owners, it fell flat. A-B’s attempt to quell conservative backlash had already taken its toll. Calls for boycott went out through LGBTQ media, gay bars boycotted the brand (NYC’s iconic Stonewall had already been doing so), GLAAD not only condemned the brand but claimed LGBTQ people were responsible for the drop in sales. GLAAD’s CEO said that Bud Light have “no one to blame but themselves.”
The consequences are clear, reflected in millions in lost sales, a drop from the top-selling spot and hundreds of layoffs.
Here’s what Bud Light can do to save itself:
Pick something. At this point, anything. Pick any cause and stick with it to the end. Preferably something human-centered.
I’d wager that the ship may have sailed for Bud Light LGBTQ allyship, but there are plenty of other worthy causes out there, groups of people whose fights for equality aren’t being heard. Pick one of these groups, and stick with them.
Rather than serving as a masterclass in “you can’t please all the people any of the time” and living at the nexus of counterproductive and insulting, Anheuser-Busch could show that it is possible for a beer company to be an ally to a community that really needs them. Anheuser-Busch could make a statement that some dollars really do mean more than others, that some things are worth standing for. Bud Light could be the beer of the __________ community.
It just won’t be gay people. Not right now.
“Our community and our allies talk with our dollars, and we don’t want to support a company who didn’t support us when the going got tough.”
GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis
As GLAAD CEO Sarah Kate Ellis notes, “Companies that did back down to bullies actually saw [backlash] escalate…there are many companies that stood up to these extremist bullies and didn’t see any problems because they didn’t back down.”
Had Bud Light stood unequivocally with the trans community, had they doubled down and flown rainbow flags in the faces of FOX News, they would have been branded “the beer for the trans community” – with cases of Bud Light at every drag show and pro-trans function for the next generation or two. The LGBTQ community would have not soon forgotten such a show of solidarity, and would have responded with millions in sales and unwavering brand loyalty.
Instead, both sides walk away feeling insulted and disgusted, and now hundreds of corporate workers are looking for new jobs as beer distributors plead for business. Taking a stand would have prevented this.
Trying to please both sides, trying to “reach across the aisle” does not and will not work for brands in the polarized 2020s. Bud Light is learning this the hard way. If your brand is going to stand with a minority community, it can’t just do so on Instagram – one has to do so when the “going gets tough”, or don’t do it at all.
