Bud Light Boycott Is Working, Anheuser-Busch Ex-Executive Says
Bud Light over its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney "isn't going away," because it fits the pattern of previously successful consumer boycotts, a former executive at the brand's parent company has said.Anson Frericks, who spent more than a decade at Anheuser-Busch, said Bud Light's appeal had been that it was "inoffensive" but that appeal was now gone.
He suggested that a way to move past the controversy was for the beverage company to "publicly commit to staying out of political issues."Anheuser-Busch has been accused of alienating its traditional customer base after sending a commemorative can to Mulvaney to mark her first year of transitioning to a girl.
Some LGBTQ+ campaigners have criticized the company for not defending its ties with the influencer, who has more than 10 million TikTok followers.It is neither the first nor the latest brand to be the target of condemnation from conservatives over marketing that advocates for the LGBTQ+ community.
However, the outrage surrounding it has outlasted other recent controversies, and continues to bubble away six weeks after it first emerged.In an op-ed for Fox News on Tuesday, Frericks wrote that "conventional wisdom holds that controversies blow over," something that was "certainly what Anheuser-Busch is hoping for."Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch have remained mostly silent amid the backlash.
