The former Anheuser-Busch CEO warns that Bud Light sales will only get worse

• Major American beer has been in check since partnering with trans influencer in April
• Bud Light sales fell for the fifth week in a row as people kept boycotting them
• Anson Frakes, former CEO of Anheuser-Busch, believes that Bud Light sales will continue to decline until they emphasize the customers they will serve.

A former Anheuser-Busch executive has warned that Bud Light sales will get worse after partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

The American beer brand has been under control since Mulvaney shared a series of promotional posts with her 11 million social media followers on April 1.

Bud Light sales fell for the fifth consecutive week as people continued to boycott them after the controversial collaboration and fell nearly 24 percent in the week ending May 6.

Anson Frikes, former president of AB-Inbev Sales and Distribution, believes the brewery’s sales will continue to decline until it shows up and confirms the customers it will serve.

Consumers feel they have an impact. And every week these sales numbers are reported, and they get worse every week.”

So I see this continuing to continue until Bud Light makes a comment about what they stand for and what customers they will be serving.

With Bud Light, that’s never been part of the brand or part of the message. And I think that’s what bothers a lot of people here.

Which is why I believe this boycott will last much longer than people think.

In the week ending May 6, Bud Light sales in stores across the United States were down 23.6 percent compared to a year earlier. And in the week before that, ending April 29, sales fell 23.3%.

This follows lower sales for the week ending April 22, which were 21.4 percent. And seven days ago, the drop was 17 percent, according to NielsenIQ data provided to Dailymail.com by Bump Williams Consultancy.

Bud Light’s vice president of marketing, Alisa Heinrescheid, and Anheuser-Busch vice president of major brands, Danielle Blake, have taken a leave of absence after the contentious partnership with Mulvaney.

The company tried to explain that a “third-party advertising agency” was responsible for the collaboration and that it had no plans to sell the box.

released a new country music-inspired ad that aired during the NFL Draft on April 27, a batch of camouflage aluminum bottles is reportedly set to be released to promote a nonprofit veterans organization, Folds of Honor.

The charity offers scholarships to the children of fallen or disabled service members and first responders.

But Fricks doesn’t see the company’s attempts to recapture the sales success and said, “One thing they didn’t do was say they got it wrong with this campaign and they were clear about who they would serve going forward.”

Will it be their shareholders and customers who just want them to create a non-political Bud Lite, or will they serve their stakeholders?

These are the people BlackRock, State Street, Vanguard want, who are asking them to serve political organizations and activists. I think until it becomes clear and they make it clear that they want to serve their customers going forward, unfortunately, I don’t see this fading away.

“I don’t think the declines in sales/volume are going to get worse, but I do think the negative volume trends will continue,” Bump Williams of Bump Williams Consultancy told DailyMail.com.

He said a 20 percent drop in sales appears to be the new “norm” for Bud Light.

But he added that experts are waiting to see what happens to sales during Memorial Day and the summer sales season to assess whether the damage will last.

“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,” Williams, the alcohol industry specialist, told the St. Louis Business Journal.

“I wonder if this will be the expected ‘floor’ for Bud Light decline moving forward unless something drastic changes.

Bud Light appears to be facing ire and potential boycotts from all sides of the political spectrum, though it is largely centered around conservatives.

The partnership with Mulvaney drew intense reactions from some quarters, with musician Kid Rock posting a video of himself shooting cases of Bud Light, and country singers John Rich and Travis Tritt canceling ties with the brand.

But media figures like Joe Rogan and Howard Stern have defended Bud Light’s decision.

Anheuser-Busch reported first-quarter profit of $1.65 billion, which beat Wall Street expectations.

The brewery generated $14.21 billion in revenue in the period, also beating expectations, with shares up 6 percent year-to-date and 12 percent in the 12 months.

It’s not clear if the boycott has any impact on these numbers, and whether a greater impact on the company’s finances will be visible in the fiscal second quarter if the controversy and boycott continue.

The brewing giants are now claiming that the beer can and social media post weren’t “meant to be produced or sold to the general public.”

CEO Michelle Docris disavowed the ad on Thursday’s earnings call, insisting the ad was “not a campaign,” and that an outside agency approved it without Bud Light’s approval.

Todd Allen, recently global vice president of Budweiser, has been announced as the new vice president of marketing for Bud Light — after vice presidents of marketing Alyssa Heinsreid and Blake took a leave of absence.

Adidas may be experiencing its own “Bud Light moment” as it faces calls to boycott the brand over its use of a biologically male model to promote women’s swimwear in its “Pride 2023” collection.

The sportswear giant infuriated fans who accused it of mocking women when it unveiled an ad for the $62 swimwear that forms part of its campaign to “support inclusive values.”

But disenfranchised fans continued to slam the wake-up company today, with some encouraging customers to “burn” their Adidas Gazelle sneakers in protest.