The Success and Failure of the Bud Light Boycott: Lessons Learned for Modern Marketing

It could be called: the art of making an incident foam. To put a society under pressure. To stir up a wave of discontent. By launching a call for a boycott of Bud Light beer and the company that produces it, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the conservative groups probably did not imagine meeting with such success. In general, calls to boycott companies for ideological reasons meet a counter movement (or “buycott”) of consumers opposed to the boycott, before falling into oblivion.

Not this time: At the end of May, two months after the beginning of the Bud Light boycott, sales of the most popular American beer were down almost 28%, in volume, compared to the same period of the year former. Since the end of March, the Anheuser-Busch InBev share, which is the largest brewing group in the world, has lost 16%, while Molson-Coors, the big competitor, has seen its stock climb by 29%… Incredible chase- crossed! Granted, Bud Light’s sales are just a drop in the ocean of sales from global beer giant InBev, which controls Anheuser Busch. But it is a symbolic mark of America.

At the origin of this storm, a mini marketing campaign that the boycotted company describes as “a single can given to a social media influencer”. 1^is April on Instagram, a certain Dylan Mulvaney, dressed as Andrey Hepburn in the film Diamonds on couch, posts a video promoting the beer. At the end of the spot, she points to a can decorated with her likeness and says, “This month I celebrated my 365th day as a woman and Bud Light sent me the greatest gift ever, a can with my face on it”. Insignificant event? Mulvaney is not just anyone: activist and transgender influencer, she has 10.8 million followers on TikTok, thanks to her series 365 Days of Girlhood (365 days of life as a young girl), dedicated to her journey of transition. Suffice to say the Devil, for the Republican right.

A brand in decline

Why will this message, and not another, trigger such a movement? In another promotional spot, Mulvaney wore a Nike sports bra and, in a video sponsored by Walmart and a cosmetics brand, a line of deodorants and skincare. In February, she had even already posted a message sponsored by Bud Light without making many waves. Even quiet in 2021, when Michelob Ultra (another Anheuser-Busch beer) featured a transgender athletics star in an ad campaign supporting gender equality in sport. Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s vice president of marketing, therefore had reason to believe that the same would be true with this promotion.

The previous month, the marketing manager had clearly announced the color: “This brand is in decline. It has been in decline for a very long time. And if we don’t get young people to come and drink it, there will be no future for Bud Light”. To relaunch the beer, she added, it must “evolve and elevate it (…). This means that the campaign must be truly inclusive, that it must be lighter, brighter and different, and that ‘it must appeal to women and men.

First problem: Bud Light is indeed a brand associated with traditional America, its market shares are particularly high in rural and conservative regions, and its consumers are mainly men. The risk of targeting an audience at the antipodes of this one therefore existed. Second error, or rather an oversight: beer made in USA is a “social” commodity that is shared between friends, it is charged with affect and constitutes a marker of identity. History had already shown it. In the 90s, when Bud Light – already! – had advertised in magazines targeting gay Americans, ultra-right pastor Jerry Falwell had mounted a national campaign against the brand. Conversely, Coors beer, brewed by a very conservative and anti-union family, has long been boycotted by many Americans.

Everyone is unhappy

The third mistake was not feeling the tide turn. From month to month, the Republican right, driven by an intense ideological war against America woke (“awake”), is becoming more intolerant of transgender people and homosexuality every day. She manages to mobilize white-hot troops, and Bud Light isn’t the only company affected. The Target supermarket chain, which offers a clothing line for the Pride Month (“LGBTQ Pride Month”), this year removed several items from sale in the face of backlash. Kohl’s, a department store chain, has come under fire for the same reasons, while clothing brand North Face found itself in the Tories’ crosshairs for an advert featuring a drag queen.

Suddenly realizing the violence of the right-wing campaign, Bud Light then made what is arguably a new mistake: capitulation. Instead of letting an admittedly costly but likely storm pass, Anheuser-Bush suspended two senior executives, including the vice president of marketing, and publicly regretted the “Dylan Mulvaney operation”: “Even if the beer will always be present when important subjects are debated, it should not, in itself, be at the center of the debate”, apologized Michel Doukeris, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, who hastened to refocus the sports and music marketing (preferably country).

Fury, this time, of an LGBTQ movement which considers itself betrayed, and boundless satisfaction of the “anti-woke” right: “I am not in favor of the destruction of an emblematic American company for something like that” , said, magnanimously, Donald Trump Jr. “Frankly, they do not participate in the same kind of garbage as other players in the beer industry, which are much worse”. The case, for Anheuser-Busch, therefore ends with two black eyes and a cruel lesson: to want to please everyone, you end up falling out with everyone.