Budweiser factories nationwide were reportedly the targets of bomb threats this week as emotions run high over parent company Anheuser-Busch’s marketing deal with its new Bud Light pitchwoman Dylan Mulvaney.
The Los Angeles Police Department confirmed that officers responded to a call from the Anheuser-Busch facility in the Van Nuys section of the city on Thursday.
A spokesperson for the St. Louis-based beermaker told Patch that several other facilities across the country received bomb threats.
Its is unclear how many facilities were targeted.
The Post has sought comment from Anheuser-Busch.
LAPD Lt. Leticia Ruiz told Patch that authorities received an emailed bomb threat at around 9 a.m. local time Thursday.
A bomb squad unit was dispatched to the facility.
“There was a search that was conducted in the premise of the building but there was nothing identified as a threat,” Ruiz said.
“We did assist in clearing the perimeter of the building.”
Meanwhile, the company’s top executive, Brendan Whitworth, released a statement on Friday that made no mention of Mulvaney.
Whitworth offered a mealymouthed apology as the company continues to resist calls to end its Bud Light sponsorship deal with the controversial transgender influencer.
“As the CEO of a company founded in America’s heartland more than 165 years ago, I am responsible for ensuring every consumer feels proud of the beer we brew,” Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth said.
“We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” he said.
“We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”
Whitworth said he was “focused on building and protecting our remarkable history and heritage.”
“Moving forward, I will continue to work tirelessly to bring great beers to consumers across our nation,” he said.
Reaction on social media to Whitworth’s statement was scathing.
“He said a bunch but also very little,” one Twitter user commented.
Another Twitter user blasted Whitworth for referencing his past military service.
“Respect the troops, I was a troop,” the critic commented.
Another social media user said the statement was tantamount to “word: here they are! enjoy them, my words.”
“This is the kind of email you get a from a colleague and spend the next hour wonder what the point of it being sent was,” another Twitter user commented.
The Mulvaney ad campaign has sparked boycott calls from the likes of country music star Travis Tritt and fellow musician Kid Rock.
The backlash has continued to cascade, as $4-5 billion in value in Anheuser-Busch stock has been lost since March 31.
Last week, Anheuser-Busch VP of marketing Alissa Heinerscheid defended the campaign with Mulvaney on the “Make Yourself at Home” podcast.
“I’m a businesswoman, I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light, and it was ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand, there will be no future for Bud Light,’” Heinerscheid said.
She criticized the brand’s “fratty” marketing.
“We had this hangover,” Heinerscheid continued.
“I mean Bud Light had been kind of a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor, and it was really important that we had another approach.”
Despite this endorsement of the campaign by a high-ranking executive at the company, other anonymous executives have distanced themselves from it.
“No one at a senior level was aware this was happening,” an unnamed source told the Daily Wire earlier this week.
“Some low-level marketing staffer who helps manage the hundreds of influencer engagements they do must have thought it was no big deal,” the unnamed source continued.
“Obviously it was, and it’s a shame because they have a well-earned reputation for just being America’s beer — not a political company.”
[Written in collaboration with other media outlets with information from the following sources]
