Bud Light sales plunge 17% amid Dylan Mulvaney controversy

Bud Light has suffered a “staggering” sales hit following the beer brand’s controversial marketing tie-up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney — with the latest data showing an alarming 17% drop, according to an industry research firm.

The latest sales data from NielsenIQ and Bump Williams Consulting shows that Bud Light sales fell 17% in dollars, while volume dropped a whopping 21% in the week ended April 15.

That’s sharply ahead of the 6% drop in sales dollars and 11% drop in volume that Bud Light had suffered during the week ended April 8 — the seven days that immediately followed the April 1 launch of the controversial Mulvaney campaign on social media.

“These numbers are staggering,” according to an April 23 report from Insights Express, a beer-focused newsletter. “Right now this is an extremely difficult scenario for Anheuser Busch, the Bud Light brand and for AB distributors.”

The Mulvaney campaign has unleashed a torrent of negative publicity for Anheuser-Busch, which announced Friday and over the weekend that the marketing executives responsible for tapping Mulvaney — Alissa Heinerscheid and Daniel Blake — are taking leaves of absence.

Meanwhile, Bud Light’s competitors are cashing in on the mess. Bud Light lost 6.7% of market share last week, while Coors Light and Miller Lite are up 18%, according to the newsletter. A week earlier, Coors Light’s market share was up 10.6% over the same period and Miller Lite up 11.5%.  

“Coors Light and Miller Lite were once again big beneficiaries,” according to Insights Express.

Anheuser-Busch distributors are meeting with the company in Washington, DC, on Tuesday.

The distributors, some of which have canceled marketing events featuring the iconic Budweiser Clydesdale horses, “are looking for a much more pointed and well developed plan on how Anheuser-Busch might stem the onslaught of negative attention and sales trends,” according to Insights Express.