Bud Light Maker Offers Distributors Free Beer, More Ad Spending After Dylan Mulvaney Backlash

The efforts are continuing a month after Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender social-media star, spoke in an Instagram video about a personalized can of Bud Light that the brewer had sent her as a gift. The April 1 post sparked a boycott that caused sales to plummet for both Anheuser-Busch and its independently owned distributors. The distributors’ employees, many of whom drive trucks bearing the Bud Light logo, were confronted by angry people on streets, in stores and in bars. 

In the week ended April 22, Bud Light’s U.S. retail-store sales fell 21% compared with the year-earlier period, according to an analysis of Nielsen data by Bump Williams Consulting. Meanwhile, sales of rival brands Coors Light and Miller Lite each grew 21%.

Sales of other Anheuser-Busch brands declined, too, including Budweiser, Busch Light and Michelob Ultra, according to Bump Williams.

“It sent shock waves through distributors,” said Jeff Wheeler, vice president of marketing for Del Papa Distributing near Houston, Texas, where he said his administrative staff fielded “tons of phone calls from people being very hateful.”

As the backlash mounted, Del Papa posted a statement on Facebook, saying Anheuser-Busch worked with hundreds of influencers and that the local distributor had no control over the brewing giant’s marketing decisions. “We too are upset with this situation and have been vocal about it with the top leadership at Anheuser-Busch,” Del Papa’s statement said.

Many of Anheuser-Busch’s distributors are family-owned businesses that have carried the brewer’s products for generations. 

Earlier this year, Bud Light’s distributors felt a new sense of optimism about their struggling flagship brand. The company planned to increase its U.S. marketing spending on Bud Light fivefold after sharply cutting it during the pandemic. Anheuser-Busch also adopted a new marketing strategy for attracting a younger and more diverse audience. 

Anheuser-Busch presents its marketing plans to distributors at an annual meeting each January. In interviews with The Wall Street Journal over the past week, wholesalers said they were thrilled at this year’s meeting in Anaheim, Calif., when the company unveiled a new marketing campaign for Bud Light and screened the company’s planned Super Bowl ads. One featured actor Miles Teller and his wife, model and actor Keleigh Sperry Teller, having an impromptu dance party in their living room.

After the Super Bowl ads aired, sales trends for the brand were improving.

The trouble began when the brand enlisted several social-media influencers, including Ms. Mulvaney, to create buzz for the beer brand during the March Madness college basketball tournament. The can made for Ms. Mulvaney was never available for sale. But many people—including bar and store owners—wrongly came to believe that Ms. Mulvaney’s video had aired as a television commercial or that the can with her picture on it was stocked on store shelves, wholesalers said. 

Some people objected to the brand’s association with a transgender influencer. Others dug up earlier comments from Alissa Heinerscheid, the Anheuser-Busch executive who oversaw Bud Light marketing, that they said belittled Bud Light drinkers. Speaking in a March podcast interview about trying to make the brand appeal to a broader audience, Ms. Heinerscheid had described previous Bud Light campaigns as having “fratty, sort of out of touch humor.” The musician Kid Rock posted a video on Twitter in which he shot cases of Bud Light with a rifle. 

Transgender issues have moved to the center of conservative social agendas in recent years. Legislators, mostly in or from Republican-majority states, have proposed federal, state and local laws aimed at curbing gender-related healthcare, restricting transgender athletes’ sports play, and banning books and events that affirm transgender rights. 

“They didn’t need to take this risk,” one distributor said, adding that he was worried the brand might now swing back in the other direction. “I lost my cowboy bars and now I could lose my gay bars, too.” 

Bud Light for decades has supported LGBT rights. 

On April 14 Brendan Whitworth,

He sent the same statement to wholesalers in a prerecorded video.

On April 21, the brewer told distributors it had placed Ms. Heinerscheid on leave and named a replacement for her in the role of vice president for Bud Light. The company also placed on leave her boss, Daniel Blake, who oversaw marketing for Budweiser, Bud Light and other mainstream brands. The company said it would revamp its process so senior leaders are more involved in marketing decisions.

On April 24, Mr. Whitworth met with a group of its distributors in Washington, D.C., where they had traveled for a beer wholesaler conference. He told them that he hadn’t known about Ms. Mulvaney’s post, or the personalized can, until someone sent him a text message shortly after the backlash erupted.

The brewer promised to spend multiples more on Bud Light this year than previously planned. 

Anheuser-Busch released a new ad last week for the NFL draft and told wholesalers that it is accelerating production on others. The brewer told distributors that its Bud Light marketing will stay consistent with the “Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy” theme of this year’s Super Bowl commercials.

Anheuser-Busch has invited wholesalers to a meeting next week in St. Louis, where they expect to hear more details on the company’s summer marketing plans.

Anheuser-Busch also paid for a free case of Bud Light for every distributor employee. And last week, it sent wholesalers a letter they could share with retailers to address misperceptions about Ms. Mulvaney’s post. 

“This can is not a formal campaign or advertisement,” the letter said. “Our new Vice President of Bud Light and all of us at Anheuser-Busch are committed to reminding all of our consumers why they love Bud Light and why they’ve made it the #1 beer in America.”

Write to Jennifer Maloney at [email protected]