Free Republic

Anheuser-Busch's handling of backlash to its Bud Light brand partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney has been branded a historically-bad marketing gaffe by a leading expert. In a Bloomberg Opinion column on Saturday, advertising and brands expert Ben Schott called the Bud Light imbroglio 'a marketing case study for the ages' in 'how not to handle brand collaborations in a dangerously polarized space.' Schott ranked the incident alongside infamous brand 'gaffes' in history, such as the chairman of Barilla pasta's 2013 declaration that he 'would never do a commercial with a homosexual family'. And in 2006, the CEO of Abercrombie...

Americans are drinking less beer after Bud Light, among others, raised their prices. In AB InBev's (BUD) latest quarterly results, the total volume of beer sold decreased by 0.9%. At the same time, total revenue grew 10.2% to $14.67 billion, with price increases a key driver of that. After price increases and "really complicated" weather in the month of December, CEO Michel Doukeris called the Q4 results in the U.S. a "one-off, complicated quarter" in a call with investors. Last quarter, the average price of a 24-pack of 12 oz. beer went up nearly 8%, per NielsenIQ data that was...

The US CEO of Bud Light parent company Anheuser-Busch has broken his silence to address polarization over the company's marketing partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. 'We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,' said CEO Brendan Whitworth in a public statement issued on Friday. 'We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.' Aside from an initial terse statement, Anheuser-Busch had remained silent since the controversy emerged on April 1, when conservative Bud Light fans questioned why Mulvaney had been tapped to promote the bestselling beer on a TikTok channel she created...

A Budweiser factory in Los Angeles was reported to be targeted by bomb threats this week in the wake of the Dylan Mulvaney controversy. A spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch confirmed Friday that, in fact, multiple additional facilities across the country had also faced threats, though the exact number and locations are unknown. The LAPD announced that officers responded to a Thursday call at around 9 a.m. local time regarding the brewer's facility in the Van Nuys section of Los Angeles. A bomb squad unit was also dispatched. 'There was a search that was conducted in the premise of the building but...

The whole thing is grotesque, and I can’t imagine the ick factor that just got associated with drinking Bud. We never had Budweiser beer in my house when I was growing up. My German father called it Räuber Peepee, and that was not a compliment. At least in those days, though, Bud knew who its market was: Ordinary Americans who wanted a reliable light lager. Now, though, Bud has gone to the woke dark side. With its Dylan Mulvaney ad campaign, its newest market seems to be Joe Biden: A man whose fantasy, as played out in public, is accessible...