As Bud Light and Budweiser continue to face a decline in sales amid a weeks-long boycott, data show that other Anheuser-Busch-owned beer brands are also taking a hit.
Sales of Michelob Ultra fell by 4.3 percent in the week that ended on July 1, as compared with the previous year, and Busch Light took an 8.5 percent hit in sales, according to Bump Williams Consulting citing NielsenIQ data. Bud Light’s sales dropped 28.5 percent for the week ending July 1, or slightly worse than the 27.5 percent decline during the previous week, while Budweiser’s sales dropped 10.2 percent.
“Budweiser trends have been slipping for a very long time, but it’s the Michelob Ultra negative numbers and now Busch Light negative trends that are most alarming to me,” Bump Williams, of the eponymous firm, told the New York Post on Monday. “They were very healthy prior to April 1.”
Mr. Williams was referring to the date on which a Bud Light can featuring transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney’s face on it was posted by the TikTok influencer, drawing a significant backlash among conservatives. Executives with Anheuser-Busch have said that only one can with Mr. Mulvaney’s face was produced in a bid to distance the brand from the influencer, although the company has been faulted for not directly addressing the controversy or its support of LGBT individuals and groups.
The data also showed that Modelo Especial, which is owned by Constellation Brands in the United States, is the No. 1-selling beer for the past two months. It saw sales jump 11.4 percent during the week ending July 1, the data show.
“The gap between Modelo Especial and Bud Light on a year-to-date basis is closing,” Mr. Williams said.
Modelo Especial was the top-selling beer brand for the four weeks ending July 1, with an 8.7 percent share of overall beer sales through retail stores for the period, while Bud Light came in second with a 7 percent share, according to Bump Williams and NielsenIQ.
