A $1B SUDS DUD
Bud trans fallout
Bud Light-parent Anheuser-Busch InBev may have lost more than $1 billion in sales because of its ill-fated advertisement featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
In North America, organic revenue — seen as the best measure of operating performance — nosedived a staggering $1.4 billion in 2023, “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light,” according to CNN, citing the brewer’s fourthquarter earnings report.
Global volumes declined 4% in the quarter, though in North America they fell more than 15% in the last three months of 2023 compared to the same period a year ago, as the boycott against Bud Light persisted.
A huge share of Bud Light’s consumer base stopped buying the brew in April 2023 — when Mulvaney shared an Instagram post of a custom Bud Light can Anheuser-Busch sent her to celebrate “365 Days of Girlhood.”
Subsequent posts were of Mulvaney (right) cracking open a can of Bud Light in honor of March Madness.
The boycott also hurt the 65,000 employees and Anheuser-Busch distributors, who faced being mocked and threatened with car horns, cursing and declining income as cases of Bud Light expired on store shelves.
Still, the world’s largest brewer — which is also behind Budweiser, Corona and Stella Artois — turned a profit in 2023 despite the fact that its “full growth potential was constrained” by its US business. Fourth quarter revenue rose 6% to $14.5 billion, the company said Thursday — lower than the $15.5 billion analysts were expecting.
‘Resilience’
AB InBev CEO Michel Doukeris called the earnings results “a testament to the strength of the beer category, resilience of our business and people, consistent execution of our replicable growth drivers, and our unwavering commitment to invest for long-term growth and value creation.”
Representatives for Anheuser-Busch and its Belgium-based corporate parent, AB InBev, did not respond to a request for further comment.