A staggering sales hit for Bud Light is worsening with each passing week following an ill-fated marketing tie-up with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney — with the latest weekly figures showing a 21% drop.
During the week ended April 22 — the most recent industry data available — Bud Light sales plunged 21% vs. a year ago, accelerating from a 17% slide a week earlier and an initial weekly drop of 6% when the controversy kicked off during the first week of April, according to Nielsen IQ and Bump Williams Consulting.
Meanwhile, beer volumes — the number of cases sold, whether in packs of 12, 18 or 24 cans — dropped an even steeper 26% last week, versus a 21% drop a week earlier and an initial drop of 11%, according to the data.
That’s an indication that Bud Light’s core customers — who typically buy their beer in bulk — are ditching the brand, beverage expert Bump Williams said in a Tuesday interview.
“Larger packages of Bud Light are not being purchased — the 30-pack suitcases, the 20-packs, the 18-packs, the 12-packs — they’re all being impacted,” Williams told The Post. “It’s going to be very, very hard to reverse the decline.”
Bud Light remains the bestselling beer in the US, with sales last year topping $4.8 billion. By comparison, the No. 2 brand, Modelo Especial, sold $3.75 billion while Michelob Ultra generated $3.3 billion in sales, according to Williams’ Connecticut-based research firm.
Nevertheless, the precipitous sales drops of the past few weeks have left its sales year to date down a painful 8%, threatening Bud Light’s leading position, the latest sales data show. Unless parent Anheuser-Busch turns things around, “then Bud Light is in serious trouble this year,” according to Williams.
“I think it runs the risk of losing that No. 1 position at the end of calendar year 2023 to Modelo Especial,” Williams said.
The Post has sought comment from Anheuser-Busch.
Last month, Mulvaney began posting images and videos of herself on social media pitching Bud Light — prompting anger and calls for a boycott.
The controversy also prompted Bud Light to place two marketing executives — Alissa Heinerscheid, the vice president of marketing, and her boss, Daniel Blake — on leave.
Williams said Heinerscheid, who was hired to lead marketing for Bud Light last year amid slumping sales, tried to tap into the progressive youth demographic.
“Her big miss was I don’t think she understood who the core Bud Light shopper was,” Williams said.
“When she came out with her comments, they were deemed as being derogatory, insulting and juvenile,” Williams said. “And the Bud Light drinkers said, ‘Enough of that.’”
The company has been trying to win back the hearts and minds of those who were upset by the Mulvaney campaign.
Over the weekend, Bud Light released a “countrified” YouTube ad showing young beer drinkers frolicking in the rain at a country music festival.
The ad, which premiered during the live airing of the NFL Draft last week on ABC and ESPN, shows the youngsters cracking open a can of beer as a hit song by the Zac Brown Band is heard playing in the background.
But critics accused the company of pandering in an attempt to regain consumer trust.
Mulvaney’s brand deals with Nike, Maybelline and Kate Spade have also triggered backlash.
Women’s magazine Allure recently put Mulvaney on its annual “A-list,” prompting calls for a boycott.
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
