Bud Light’s transgender row boycott hurts growth at Bev’s world’s largest beer company AB

AB InBev said its growth has been “suppressed” following a massive boycott of its beer following a controversy with a transgender model.

The world’s largest beer company said beverage sales fell 1.7% in 2023 as U.S. shoppers turned away from Bud Light beer.

Sales in North America took a 15.3 percent hit after transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted an ad for Bud Light on Instagram.

Mulvaney was sent a personalized can as part of a promotional campaign.

Mulvaney said she was celebrating her “365th day as a woman” after changing her gender, dressing up as Holly Golightly, the character from the 1961 film “Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

In response, right-wing groups accused AB InBev of “corporate renegadeism” and called for a boycott of the brand.

Bud Light has been the go-to beer for ordinary Americans for decades, primarily sold to suburban families and blue-collar workers.

But marketing executives’ efforts to refresh its appeal and attract younger, more diverse customers backfired.

Bud Light has lost its place as America’s best-selling beer, replaced by Modelo Especial, a Mexican beer also made by AB InBev.

Former presidential candidate and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is an outspoken critic, and country singer Kid Rock is known for wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap while shouting bad things about beer while firing a lager with a submachine gun. I even filmed myself shooting three cases of.

And the LGBTQ+ community felt that Brewer failed to defend Mulvaney and transgender people in the face of hate.

This has led some gay bars to also boycott beer and other AB InBev brands like Stella Artois.

For some Americans, “let’s give them the Bud Light treatment” has become a shorthand for launching a boycott of companies over “woke” policies and inclusive marketing.