Bud Light sales are down 24% in the last week since the Dylan Mulvaney disaster

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by Lisa Fincher

May 16, 2023 | 2:06 p.m

Bud Light has suffered its fifth straight week of declining sales since the Dylan Mulvaney controversy began – raising doubts about whether the mega-brand can recover as the crucial summer beer drinking season gets underway.

Nationwide retail sales of Bud Light sales fell 23.6% year-over-year during the week ending May 6 — slightly worse than the 23.3% decline for the week ending April 29, according to data from Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ.

Sales of other Anheuser-Busch brands also continued to decline, albeit at a slower rate than the previous week. Among those was Budweiser, which fell 9.7% from 11.4% in the previous week. Michelob Ultra, down 2.9% vs. 4.3%; and Natural Light, down 2.5% versus 5.2% the previous week.

“This appears to be where the brand’s weekly declines are starting to level off, dropping in the -20% range over the past few weeks,” Bombe Williams, CEO of the consulting firm, said of Bud Light. I wonder if this will be the ‘floor’.

Meanwhile, rival beer brands rivaling Bud Light — the No. 1 beer in the US, which brought in $4.8 billion in revenue last year — are grabbing market share at a faster clip as Anheuser-Busch grapples with the fallout from its ill-fated tie-in with the influencer. Transgender which launched on April 1st.

Pabst Blue Ribbon sales rose 21.6% in the week ending May 6 — slightly more than the 18.9% rise in the previous week. Miller High Life gained 10.4% in sales compared to 8.3% during the same time period the week before, according to Bump Williams and NielsenIQ data.

“I think the Bud Light drinker is waiting for a real and sincere apology from my family [Anheuser-Busch] And crystal clear communication about exactly what happened and how important Bud Light drinkers are to me [company]said Williams.

But some question whether these and other promotions will be enough to reverse overwhelmingly negative public sentiment toward Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light in particular.

The company is “running out of time to fix the problem as the summer sale season unofficially kicked off this past weekend and Memorial Day two weeks later,” Williams said.

The Washington Post has learned that last week the company held a meeting at its US headquarters in St. Louis with distributors to discuss its strategy for dealing with the backlash. Among the planned new initiatives is a temporary redesign of Budweiser and Bud Lite aluminum bottles, according to a distributor who did not wish to be identified.

Anheuser-Busch will produce bottles printed with camouflage and imagery for the “Folds of Honor” program, which provides educational grants to children and spouses of fallen or disabled U.S. military service members and first responders, according to the executive.

The redesign is part of an effort by Anheuser-Busch to invest heavily in the brand this spring and summer, the Post reported. The company started the Blitz during the NFL Draft at the end of April.

At some New York grocery stores this weekend, the company offered customers a free “Ultra Mom” ​​T-shirt to anyone who purchased Michelob Ultra products.

Experts speculate that other potential marketing strategies include discounting beer in retail stores, investing heavily in sports marketing, and incorporating the US military, country and western music, farmers, law enforcement and first responders into their advertising.

Beer drinkers across the country have registered their outrage against Anheuser-Busch for exploiting Mulvaney to promote Bud Light. The brewery’s core customers have chosen not to order Bud Light at bars and restaurants—and, more recently, other Anheuser-Busch-owned beer brands—or pick up cans and six-packs at grocery stores.

The LGBTQ community also denounced Anheuser-Busch for retracting the promotion and not defending its decision to align with Mulvaney.

Anheuser-Busch put two marketing executives — Alisa Heinsreid, vice president of marketing, and its president, Daniel Blake — on leave last month.

Earlier this month, Michel Ducres, CEO of Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch, disavowed Mulvaney’s agreement.

“We need to get the facts straight that this was possible, one influencer, one post and not a campaign,” Docris told investors during an earnings call.