In a froth over trans beer ad

When Budweiser paid an estimated $75m for the right to be the exclusive supplier of beer at the Fifa World Cup in Qatar, it could have been forgiven for expecting to be able to do so.

When the Qataris flexed their muscles and announced a ban on beer sales in the stadiums a mere two days before the start of the tournament, whoever was at the helm of the Bud Twitter account produced the corporate tweet of the year with “Well, this is awkward …” before the suits spotted it and deleted it post haste.

Clearly a global beer brand’s messaging has to appeal to a broad church of potential topers, as it has discovered after it floated a Bud Light marketing campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

It would probably be an exaggeration to claim that the average US quaffer is on the woke end of the transgender rights movement, given that this contains elements of a demographic whose response to a school shooting is to go out and buy more assault rifles, just in case legislation is drafted to hinder their constitutional right to do so.

Social media has exploded on both ends of the spectrum, with the LGBTQ lobby launching its own boycott because it felt the company didn’t do enough to support Mulvaney.

Bud Light sales are down about 25% and AB InBev’s share price is down 22% since the campaign launched, a drop of more than $25bn despite the CEO pointing out that the decline in sales represented a mere 1% of total global volumes. It’s clearly a debate that corporates should approach with caution.