For the week ending April 29, sales of Bud Light, which was the nation’s top selling beer, dropped 23.4 percent from the same week in 2022, according to NielsenIQ data. Over the same time period this year, Bud Light’s competitors saw boosts in their sales, with Coors Light sales up 20.3 percent and sales of Miller Lite up 20.6 percent. But, as more people learn of the other beverages held in Anheuser-Busch’s portfolio, the fallout from backlash over Bud Light’s partnership with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney is now spreading to other beer products. The St. Louis Business Journal reported the following numbers:Bud Light’s plummeting sales due to a boycott of the iconic brand are now spreading to other beverages under the beer’s parent company Anheuser-Busch.
“It’s not just a Bud Light issue. It’s an Anheuser-Busch portfolio problem now,” Bump Williams, chief executive of Bump Williams data, told the New York Post. “If Bud Light doesn’t fix its trend by the end of this month, it will continue to lose market share because it will lose Memorial Day. That kicks off the summer season,” Williams added. “There has to be a sense of urgency for InBev to correct these trends.” Not only are Anheuser-Busch sales collapsing because of a boycott by conservatives who opposed the company’s partnership with Mulvaney, but now LGBTQ bars are also ditching the company’s beverages, arguing the company did not do enough to defend the social media influencer. 2Bears Tavern Group, which owns multiple gay bars on Chicago’s north side, recently posted a statement to Instagram saying all of their establishments were abandoning Anheuser-Busch products over what the owners call the brewer’s “anti-transgender actions and statements.” “Anheuser-Busch’s decision to drop its support of Mulvaney in response to ignorant and hateful objections by some of its customers shows how little Anheuser-Busch cares about the LGBTQIA+ community, and in particular transgender people, who have been under unrelenting attack in this country,” the statement reads. Sidetrack, a gay bar located on North Halstead in Chicago, also issued a statement saying they would no longer be selling Anheuser-Busch products Budweiser, Bud Light, and Goose Island 312.
