Anheuser-Busch Bombarded By Backlash After Harley-Davidson Partnership
Beverage Industry.However, the cans—which include the words "Kings of our Craft" and "Brewed and built in the USA"—have all but served to ignite further furor from a number of conservative detractors who over the past several weeks have been boycotting Bud Light.In early April, transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney shared a video on Instagram in which she explained that Bud Light had sent her a beer can with her face on it to commemorate 365 days of her living as a woman.
Mulvaney's Days of Girlhood video series, which charts her first year of transitioning, has been a viral success.The partnership drew condemnation from a number of conservative social media users who issued calls for a boycott.
Musician Kid Rock shared footage of him opening fire on a stack of Bud Light cans, a move that was copied by model Bri Teresi as she took aim at a range of brands.Amid the criticism and reports of plummeting sales, some Bud Light executives took a leave of absence, including marketing head Alissa Heinerscheid and Daniel Blake, who oversees marketing for Anheuser-Busch's mainstream brands.As a result of the backlash, the timing of the release of Budweiser's Harley-Davidson's cans has proved to be somewhat problmatic, with detractors only ramping up their objections to products associated with Anheuser-Busch.After the can was unveiled on Instagram, one social media user wrote: "I will never buy or drink this brand of beer ever again.""Never drinking Anheuser Busch beer again," commented another on a follow-up post. "You turned your backs on your customers."Over on Twitter, the objections came in thick and fast, with one person writing: "After the trans can fallout, Budweiser is set to pump some testosterone back into its [products].
