Free beer here!
Bud Light touted a new $15 rebate during the July 4 holiday weekend to jumpstart cratering sales after its disastrous partnership with Dylan Mulvaney.
The nation’s top-selling beer was forced to resort to the giveaway gimmick as sales plunged another 28.5% — the largest dip yet — for the week ended June 17, according to Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ.
Bud Light’s parent Anheuser-Busch, which offered the same promotion over the Memorial Day weekend, will again extend a $15 rebate for purchases of a 15-pack of Budweiser, Bud Light, Budweiser Select or Budweiser Select 55.
The rebate applies to purchases of up to $15 made between June 15 and July 8, according to the terms of service.
That means that Bud Light is effectively giving away the beer for free in areas where 15-packs sell for less than $15.
Bud Light will pay out the rebate to customers by way of a prepaid digital card, according to the brand.
Anheuser-Busch has seen sales of its signature brands decline since Mulvaney posted social media images touting Bud Light on April 1.
Last week’s eye-popping decline eclipsed the previous week’s record plunge of 26.8% decline, which beat the prior week’s fall of 24.4%.
The continuing declines put Bud Light in jeopardy of losing its two-decade status as America’s top-selling beer.
Mulvaney’s social media posts ignited calls for a backlash which went viral on Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram — putting a dent in the brand’s sales and causing parent company Anheuser-Busch to lose $20 billion in market value.
Bud Light last week rolled out a new summer-themed ad in hopes of getting back into the good graces of beer drinkers, but the effort fell short for many Twitter users still smarting over the branding partnership with Mulvaney.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
