Bud Light parent company Anheuser-Busch appears to be trapped between a rock and a hard place as it grapples with polarization over its paid partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Since the controversy emerged on April 1, Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch’s main social media accounts have fallen silent, despite major sporting events of the kind the brand typically chimes in on.
Aside from an initial terse statement, Anheuser-Busch has also ignored media requests on the issue. Last week, a Missouri distributor canceled an event featuring the famed Budweiser Clydesdales, citing safety concerns.
‘They never expected the reaction that they got,’ said Gareth Boyd, a marketing and PR expert with Forte Analytica, speaking to DailyMail.com on Thursday as an industry observer. ‘Right now, if they respond and they don’t get it right, they’re only going to further hurt themselves.’
‘I think they’re probably trying to avoid talking about it, hoping and praying that it will go away, but it’s probably the worst thing you could possibly do,’ he added.
As the company remained on the sidelines, the controversy took on a bizarre life of its own, with musician Kid Rock posting a video of himself shooting at cases of Bud Light, and country singers John Rich and Travis Tritt publicly denouncing the brand.
And there has been backlash to the backlash, with shock jock Howard Stern slamming the fury at Bud Light as overblown, and podcaster Joe Rogan calling the conservative outrage over Mulvaney ‘goofy.’
First fire the dumbass Harvard grad. Get back to basics of selling beer. It ain’t hard. People need their job.
Lesson taught-wokeness leads to brokenness. Couldn’t have happened to a stupider bunch of imbeciles.. I do feel sorry for all the working people who will suffer for the idiocricy at anhieser Busch. If you own stock you better get hell out asap.