After taking a break during the Dylan Mulvaney controversy, critics of Bud Light are lining up to attack the struggling beer company.
Since its April collaboration with the 26-year-old transgender influencer caused a drop in sales, the beer brand has been having trouble, costing its parent company Anheuser-Busch some $22 billion in market cap to date.
Following the criticism, Bud Light’s social media employees withdrew into the shadows in mid-April, and the brewing giant renounced the failed campaign.
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From June 22 onward, more than two months later, the company carefully started publishing noticeably more politically neutral and frequently nameless advertisements on its social media pages.
Its posts feature images of Bud Light cans in cooler boxes covered with water droplets and one of a man’s arm holding a Bud Light bottle in front of a clear blue sky, with part of his body exposed.
It tweeted a picture of two ladies bringing a 24-can crate of Bud Light to the beach this week along with the remark, “Summer Sunday made easy.” The women were wearing shorts and sandals.
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Brand haters were quick to criticize the advertisement, pointing out how the camera position disguised the friend’s identity while masking the face of the leading woman in the advertisement.
Since their April collaboration, Bud Light and transgender influencer Mulvaney have lost $22 billion in market value for the parent business of the brand.
The beer’s sales fell 28.5 percent for the week ending July 1, significantly less than the brand’s 27.9 percent loss for the week ending June 24.
When Mulvaney, who was born in California, posted a sponsored article for Bud Light in April, the two parties collaborated.
In a series of videos shared on social media in time for the NCAA March Madness tournament, Mulvaney made the announcement of the relationship.
The collaboration was created to mark her first complete year as an out transgender woman.
She finally spoke out about Bud Light in June of this year, denouncing the corporation for allowing transphobic customers to publicly express their “hatred” for the community.