' Photo: BENOIT DOPPAGNE/AFP
Bud Light's chief executive accused “one” social media post about a transgender influencer of wiping billions from the company's value.
Michel Duqueris, chief executive of the company's lager beer parent company Anheuser-Busch said “misinformation and confusion” on social media played a role in the debacle.
Bud Light has come under fire from conservative activists and clients after it partnered with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender social network. an influential media blogger with over 10 million online followers.
Mulvaney, who documented her transition in a video series called Girlhood Days, shared a sponsored post for the beer brand on her Instagram account.
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She was filmed drinking from her signature Bud Light cans, which feature her own face.
Dylan Mulvaney's face on a custom can of Bud Light. Photo: Instagram/Dylan Mulvaney.
The Conservative boycott that followed caused Anheuser-Busch's value to drop by about $4 billion in a matter of days, and beer sales fell by a quarter.
< p>The two Bud Light executives were sent on vacation due to marketing disaster.
However, Mr Duqueris told the Financial Times that online “misinformation and confusion” has led customers to interpret the personalized Mulvaney can as being in production for a general sale rather than a one-off.
“We never were going to do it for mass production and sale to the general public,” he said.
Some have also interpreted the Mulvaney Post as part of the Bud Light campaign. Mr Duqueris said: “It wasn't: it was one post. It was not an advertisement.
The CEO complained that there were even billboard videos with images of a can of Bud Light inserted “electronically” that were viewed by 10 million people.
“It had nothing to do with Bud Light, it was just like pure social media creation,” he said.
Dylan Mulvaney filmed her drinking from Bud cans Light with its own face. shown on them. Photo: Instagram/Dylan Mulvaney
He added: “You have one fact and each person puts their opinion behind the fact. And then the opinions begin to quickly replicate in every comment. By the time 10 or 20 people leave a comment, the reality will no longer be what it really is, but more [about what] the comments were.”
The consumer element of America's culture wars highlights the problems faced by companies such as Anheuser-Busch, which also owns some of the most famous beer brands, from Stella Artois to Corona.
Bud Light sales volumes for the week ending April 22 are the most recent fell 26% year-over-year, according to an analysis by Bump Williams Consulting based on Nielsen IQ data.
However, Mr Duqueris said it was “too early” to say what impact the fall in sales would have on will account for the company's bottom line earnings for the full year.
According to the Financial Times, Anheuser-Busch's first-quarter profit rose almost 14% from a year earlier, beating analysts' expectations.
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