The Dylan Mulvaney controversy and the boycott of Bud Light must be nearing their end, right? Well, it appears that only the reverse is true, in contrast to what one may suppose are Anheuser-Busch InBev’s fervent aspirations.
A Buffalo, New York, bar has officially removed the potent potable from its selection of on-tap brews, and a video of the event has gone viral on social media as the latest symptom of the beer blacklist times.
It’s the latest sign that Bud Light won’t simply recover after another disastrous month.
The New York Post reports that social media influencer Daniel M. Keem first posted the event’s video on Thursday.
In the video, Keem narrates as his neighborhood bar switches the handle for Bud Light to Miller Lite.
“So, Bud Light is so boycotted that it’s being removed,” Keem said in the video.
“For Miller!” a person offscreen screams.
“It’s being removed from my local bar. Holy s***. That’s crazy,” Keem said. He then asked whether anybody was still buying the beer.
“No. No,” the bartender said.
My local bar finally gave up & is removing Bud Light completely from the bar permanently. pic.twitter.com/8LjJK8M6Lu
— KEEM 🍿 (@KEEMSTAR) July 27, 2023
Even if one pub discontinues serving what was once America’s favorite beer, it may not make a huge difference. The video’s success and the fact that it received approximately 9 million views on Twitter as of Monday morning EDT demonstrate the magnitude of the difficulty Anheuser-Busch InBev is facing.
A day after Keem posted the video of the removal of the Bud Light handle from his neighborhood bar, the parent business of Bud Light said it was laying off 2% of its workers.
“While we never take these decisions lightly, we want to ensure that our organization continues to be set for future long-term success,” Anheuser-Busch Chief Executive Brendan Whitworth said in a statement, according to CBS News.
“These corporate structure changes will enable our teams to focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone.”
Well, the statistics for July indicated that not necessarily everyone.
Beer sales for the month of July that ended on July 15 were down 26.5 percent from the same period last year. Bud Light and rival Modelo both experienced year-over-year growth of 13.5%, although Modelo once again outperformed Bud Light in terms of market share, holding an 8.7% versus 6.8% share.
And for some time now, AB InBev has urged conservatives to cease the boycott by emphasizing the need of maintaining jobs.
As Fortune reported, Whitworth gave an interview to CBS in June. The outlet reported that, when “(a)sked what troubled him the most, he said it was his 18,000 workers and the additional 47,000 people employed by its distributors. That number doesn’t count the farmers he said were also affected by the boycott.”
“It’s the impact honestly on the employees that weighs the most on me,” Whitworth said.
However, since the Mulvaney stunt happened on April 1, Bud Light has done everything but issue a formal apology. It’s been almost four months after Mulvaney’s “365 Days of Girlhood” campaign’s highlight reel for the infamous Instagram beer can ad featuring the transgender “influencer” was released.
I’m not sorry. There is no “we’re sorry.” No excuse me. Additionally, there was no Bud Light at many homes, eateries, and pubs across America, including one in Buffalo, New York, which went viral.
Whitworth and other AB InBev executives can easily resolve this situation. They should be the first to go, and they would actually follow the individuals who planned this terrible campaign.
If those two little words — “I’m sorry” — are so difficult, here are two more they should hear: “You’re fired.”
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