It’s a beer-gain price for an embattled brew.
Bud Light sales fell for the sixth consecutive week even as retailers slashed prices — with one store charging $3.49 for a 24-pack — to get rid of the unwanted beer as the nationwide boycott over its partnership with Dylan Mulvaney continued.
Since Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch teamed up with transgender influencer Mulvaney, sales have fallen precipitously, and stores have been marking down the company’s products to get them off their shelves.
“This could be a promotional summer the likes we haven’t seen since after Hurricane Katrina in 2005, where there was so much beer inventory backed up in the trade that it initiated the price war of all price wars,” Beer Business Daily said according to Fox Business.
The trade publication, which reviewed Nielsen IQ data, said Bud Light volumes for the week ending May 13 fell 28.4 percent, following a 27.7 percent drop the prior week.
Other Anheuser-Busch brands have also taken a hit, with Budweiser Red volumes down 14.9 percent and Michelob Ultra down 6.8 percent for the same time period.
Meanwhile, competitors are reaping the benefits of the controversy, with Coors Light sales up 16.9 percent and Miller Lite up 15.1 percent, according to the trade journal.
In a promotion for the company’s March Madness contest and to celebrate the one-year anniversary since Mulvaney began identifying as a woman, Bud Light gave the TikTok star and transgender activist a personalized pack of beer with her image.
The promotion backfired and provoked a national boycott of the beer. Anheuser-Busch has lost nearly $19 billion with shares down 14 percent.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
