Posted on 05/11/2023 12:09:41 PM PDT by Morgana
HSBC has downgraded Anheuser-Busch InBev stock to hold amid a "crisis" following Bud Light's marketing campaign featuring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.
Carlos Laboy, managing director at HSBC's global beverage sector, told CNBC that there are "deeper problems than ABI admits" after the social media partnership with Mulvaney in April.
"Is ABI’s leadership getting the brand culture transformation right? It’s mixed," Laboy wrote Wednesday in a note.
At Ambev, we think the answer is ‘yes;’ in the US, we think it’s ‘no.’ The way this Bud Light crisis came about a month ago, management’s response to it and the loss of unprecedented volume and brand relevance raises many questions," Laboy continued.
Laboy cited a Beer Marketer's Insights note which reported a drop in beer sales of possibly over 25% in April.
"Why did its US leadership underestimate the risk of pushback given the recent experience of other firms? Is A-B hiring the best people to grow the brands and gauge risk?" the analyst added. "If Budweiser and Bud Light are iconic American ideas that have long brought consumers together, why did these marketers fail to invite new consumers without alienating the core base of the firm’s largest brand?"
Ambev is a Brazilian brewery also owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.
In the first three weeks of April, sales in the U.S. of Bud Light dropped to the equivalent of 1% of the company's global volume for the time period.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
Ditto here.
Nepotism is never going away.
Don’t call it a “Boycott”. Call it an opportunity to expand your beer experience. Many local breweries to try
Why?
Because parents want losers like Hunter to be what their child grows up to be?
Sell! Sell! Sell!
$20 rebate? They're basically having to give this **** away
Asterisks mine.
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