Well, surely by now, Anheuser-Busch InBev is regretting ever thinking that fashioning a can with the face of transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney was a good idea. The company’s overall sales, especially of beer brand Bud Light, have gone swirly down the toilet since April when it first launched the partnership with Mulvaney, alienating the target demographic who buys the company’s product: red-blooded American dudes.
Conservatives and like-minded individuals all across the country have simply had enough of progressives infiltrating every industry in existence and forcing the woke agenda down their throats. The whole situation with Bud Light and Mulvaney was the straw that broke the camel’s back. In response, a whole lot of folks boycotted the product, leading to a massive crash in sales.
How massive?
According to The Daily Wire, Anheuser-Busch just admitted that a total of 380 employees, that’s two percent of their 19,000 total employees “across every function” are being given their pink slips. By the end of July, Bud Light’s sales here in the United States will have taken a major nose-dive totaling 26.5%.
It’s the Mulvaney Effect, as Hank Berrien pointed out in his report for DW.
“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 went on to say. “These corporate structure changes will enable our teams to focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone.”
Retail stores, bars, and restaurants have all stated that the demand for Bud Light plummeted in April after Mulvaney posted the now infamous TikTok video showing the wretched custom can with his face plastered all over it celebrating a full year of “being a woman.” In the later part of June, Whitworth made an appearance on “CBS This Morning,” where he referred to the backlash the company was experiencing as “divisive.”
“I think the conversation surrounding Bud Light has moved away from beer and the conversation has become divisive,” Whitworth commented. “Bud Light really doesn’t belong there; Bud Light should be about bringing people together.”
When Whitworth was asked what the intention was behind making the can for Mulvaney, he replied by saying, “It was a gift and it was one can.” Okay, if that’s the case, why was the whole thing referred to as a “partnership” at the time? Hmm?
The show’s co-host, Tony Dokoupil asked Whitworth, “Knowing what you know now if you go back, would you send a can to this one person again?”
“There’s a big social conversation taking place right now and big brands are right in the middle of it,” Whitworth responded. “And it’s not just our industry or Bud Light. It’s happening in retail, it’s happening in fast food. And so, for us, what we need to understand is — deeply understand and appreciate — is the consumer, and what they want, what they care about, and what they expect from big brands.”
“Where are you on the issue? Was this a mistake?” Dokoupil pushed.
And once again, Whitworth tapped danced around the question like Danny Kaye in “White Christmas.”
“Bud Light has supported LGBTQ since 1998, so that’s 25 years,” he remarked. “And as we’ve said from the beginning, we’ll continue to support the communities and organizations that we’ve supported for decades. But as we move forward, we want to focus on what we do best, which is brewing great beer for everyone, listening to our consumers, being humble in listening to them, making sure we do right by our employees, take care and support our partners, and ultimately make an impact in the communities that we serve.”
Normally, boycotts have a slim impact on a company because there aren’t enough individuals who get on board with the cause enough to actually suffer by going without the product. However, the whole thing with Mulvaney really immobilized people in a way other boycotts in recent memory have not.
This should be a lesson to other companies who are pushing a woke agenda. Tread carefully, or your bottom line might actually live up to the phrase.
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