Anheuser-Busch Inbev said Tuesday that revenue growth in most of its global regions was offset by a drop in North American sales, in a sign of continuing fallout from a promotion with a transgender influencer that cost it sales.
The world’s largest brewer and parent company of Bud Light said adjusted earnings for the latest quarter rose 4.1% to $5.4 billion on revenues that climbed 5% to $15.6 billion.
Revenue in the United States for the July-September period, however, tumbled 13.5%. AB InBev, based in Leuven, Belgium, noted that sales to retailers were down “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light.”
Bud Light sales plunged amid a conservative backlash after the brand sent a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in early April.
No…
Rightwingers started making a bunch of noise. And AB immediately caved to them. Making the vast majority of everyone else not want to buy their products either.
If they stayed on course the drop probably wouldn’t happen. Instead they managed to piss of the majority of Americans on both sides.
I wonder what percentage of people who would be put off by Budweiser caving to bigots so quickly would actually regularly drink Budweiser in the first place?
Have you seen the way those hipsters guzzle PBR? Do you really think it tastes any better than Budweiser? Image is EVERYTHING when you’re selling cheap beer. Budweiser could have cemented its place as a progressive all-inclusive all-american beer. Instead they gave in to the bullies, an act that no bully can respect.
PBR has a very distinct flavor. Its not great but its fine.
The best thing about a PBR is, if you don’t finish it… oh well
I don’t think hipsters have been into pbr for like ten years, but it’s possible I’ve just aged out of hipster circles.
The people who drink Budweiser and Bud Light are the people who buy cheap beer. Whether it’s at a bar or stocking up for a party, it’s like buying chips or pizza, you aren’t thinking too hard about it. Miller or Busch or PBR or Coors or Old Style or Michelob or any other roughly equivalent beer (half of which are also owned by AB) works just as well. Budweiser gave people a reason to think about their beer, and didn’t give anyone a reason to think positively about their beer. If you are looking at the available options, and one of them is associated with bigotry, you’re going to pick anything else.
Bud Light sells at gay bars the same as any other beer lol
Gay people are just normal people.
Yeah I think a lot of people think of us as more urbane and refined, and yes, I do definitely feel that our community and culture encourages that. But also I’ve met plenty of dudebro gay guys that would reach for a bud same as their friends. Hell I’ve met nonbinary folks who are as hick as it gets.
A vanishingly small percentage. The kind of people that care about inclusivity and LGBTQ+ rights aren’t the kind of people that drink Budweiser. Their core demographic skews very heavily to the dude bro side of things. They pissed off a significant chunk of their existing customers, and then by immediately backtracking lost any potential new customers they might have picked up. They basically made the worst possible set of decisions they could have.
The kind of people that care about inclusivity and LGBTQ+ rights aren’t the kind of people that drink Budweiser
It’s so weird that people actually think this is true.
Worst part was they hung Dylan out to dry. She didn’t ask for the partnership, they wanted to use her for her demo. Then, when bigots started losing their minds, they threw her under the bus. They offered zero guidance or support of any kind. After unleashing the hate and vitriol of assholes across the country, silence. Fuck everyone involved at InBev.
This is gonna be in PR textbooks one day, if it isn’t already. It’s a shining example of what not to do in the face of a moral panic.
Manipulator&Sons PR Advice for major corporations:
Step 1) (mostly applies to Americans) Hire a propaganda specialist to monitor current news propaganda cycles that will inform marketing on current minefields.
Step 2) Don’t step in political minefields created by said propagandists.
Step 3) Profit.
Note that they still gained revenue. The idiots not buying Bud Light just bought another of the bajillion beers AB Inbev owns.
And not just gained revenue, but 5.4 god damn billion dollars. “Hurting” my ass. They can give me some of that so they can keep milking this bs
Hey, if they wanna give me some of that billions, I’ll let myself get dehydrated and give them my piss.
I mean, it tastes the same, probably.
Reminds me of when the US was in some soccer related match against Belgium, and AB In-Bev decked their Budweiser cans out in American flags.
Idiots everywhere. ‘yeah gimme an America beer to support team USA!!’
…Those sales went to a Belgian owned conglomerate.
Everyone that got pissed off about that tried other stuff and found out it was actually better.
Also, a lot of dumbasses probably went to the store and bought a different product… made by the same company.
Haha came here thinking the same thing. I actually liked their endorsement for that trans person but I’d never switch to fuckin bud lite. Ew.
this comment reads like projection. some of the most unhappy and bitter people I know are leftists. republicans can be retarded but most conservatives I know are in happy families with good jobs. Whereas the lefties I know are all “struggling artists” or similar, have no money, no children, no family, and hate everyone around them who disagrees with them.
What if I told you there’s a huge swathe of totally normal people who aren’t the psychopaths boycotting beer over a single advertisement or full on commie pinkos?
Do you want a discussion or to hear your own beliefs repeated back to you as is usual fare in this subreddit
People should be boycotting bud light because it’s awful not because of their ad.
What I don’t get is all the people pointing out Bud Light doesn’t taste good like it’s a recent discover or new change…
Like, do you all really think people are out their drinking shitty light beer because they like the taste?
They’re drinking it because it’s cheap and they can drink a case a day by themselves.
Hell, back in college if someone showed up with Budweiser, they got shit for wasting money on “expensive” beer. Normally everyone just bought whatever was the cheapest option, because how it tasted was the absolute lowest priority when getting enough booze for 50-100 broke college kids to binge drink.
What’s funny is that you can spend less money on some cheap ass bottom shelf wine that has a higher alcohol content. You get drunk faster, for less money and you don’t have to drink as much if that’s your goal. You just won’t look cool being the kid showing up to the rager with bottles of Bare Foot or Yellow Tail.
You can’t use wine in a beer bong. Or, maybe better said, you shouldn’t. Nor can you do a keg stand with bottles of wine. Wine beer pong sucks, a lot, I’ve played it. I’d rather put whiskey in the cups.
While I agree with you in terms of efficiency, wine just doesn’t work for drinking games the same as beer.
