The crash in retail sales of Bud Light has deepened amid conservative calls for a boycott following the brand’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, according to a beer industry report.
Tracking data on Bud Light sold in places like supermarkets and liquor stores (off-premise sales volumes outside of restaurants and bars) fell by an annualized 26.1 percent in the week ended April 22, according to Beer Business Daily.
“The shocking deterioration of Bud Light Blue’s market share continued apace through the third week of April—and actually somehow worsened. We’ve never seen such a dramatic shift in national share in such a short period of time,” Beer Business Daily wrote in commentary on the scanner volume data.
A comparison to earlier data shows that the Bud Light sales slump has deepened. Bud Light’s off-premise sales dropped 21.1 percent for the week ended April 15, which followed a 10.7 percent decline for the week ended on April 8, according to Beer Business Daily.
It comes amid fallout from Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney, a male who identifies as a woman. Mulvaney rose to fame for chronicling a transition he dubbed “365 Days of Girlhood.”
“This month I celebrated my day 365 of womanhood and Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever—a can with my face on it,” Mulvaney said on April Fool’s Day in announcing the deal.
Mulvaney, who has over 10 million followers on TikTok, posted a series of videos advertising Bud Light and showing off the personalized can, sparking outrage among conservatives, some of whom accused the brand of promoting a transgender agenda and called for a boycott.
Singer Kid Rock used Bud Light cans as target practice to express his anger at the promotional campaign, while Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said he would be boycotting Bud Light.
The latest Bud Light sales figures suggest the boycott is having an impact.
“This means our Bud Light boycott is the most successful in history,” media personality Benny Johnson, host of “The Benny Show,” said in a post on Twitter.
Anheuser-Busch, which makes Bud Light, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
By Tom Ozimek
