Nolte: Bud Light Boycott Cost Tranheuser-Busch $1.4 Billion

Tranheuser-Busch claimed it earned record revenues in 2023 but admitted its “full growth potential was constrained” in the U.S. due to a boycott after Bud Light signed transvestite Dylan Mulvaney as a sponsor.

Yeah, “constrained” by $1.4 BILLION.

More:

In North America, organic revenue, seen as the best measure of operating performance, plunged $1.4 billion last year as beer sales by volume tumbled in the region, primarily due to a decline in Bud Light sales in the United States. Beer makes up the lion’s share of Anheuser-Busch InBev’s revenue.

Bud Light sales tanked after the company’s partnership with Mulvaney last April sparked an anti-trans backlash and calls for a boycott. A tepid response to the controversy from the company also angered LGBTQ+ advocates.

“In the U.S., performance remains very underwhelming with revenue down at double-digit rates as the group lost market share,” Aarin Chiekrie, an equity analyst, told CNNLOL.

After two decades of being America’s top beer brand, Bud Light lost the crown to Modelo Especial, a Mexican lager. Gee, I guess all those immigrant-hating, MAGA-bigoted beer drinkers forgot to be bigoted.

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Credit: @luistejadabostonrealtor/LIFESTYLOGY /TMX

Bud Light made the same mistake the entertainment industry is still making — targeting its product at people who have no interest in its product at the expense of loyal fans. Bud Light puts a freak in a dress drinking Bud Light as though there are enough untapped freaks in dresses to increase its market share even after all the normal people walk away disgusted with the normalization of mental illness.

Ask Sports Illustrated how betraying its base with freaks in dresses and swimsuits panned out. Oh, you can’t. Sports Illustrated is dead.

This is no different than the Disney Grooming Syndicate feminizing Star Wars and queering its children’s content. Whatever market share you gain with female gym teachers and child predators will not come close to the loyal fans among normal people you lose.

Bud Light has since tried to win its old customers back with a new advertising campaign aimed at guy-guys. The brand also signed non-woke comedian Shane Gillis as a spokesman. But what Bud Light and Tranheuser-Busch have not done is apologize or admit to making a mistake.

My disdain for boycotts aside, if Bud Light wants its former customers to forgive and forget, Bud Light must take the first step with an apology. Until then, all of these Middle America ads filled with pickup trucks, American flags, and stallions just come off as patronizing — as if that’s all that’s needed to win us rubes over.

If you want normal people for customers, don’t make a weird guy in a dress the face of your company. Normal people cannot relate to transvestites. They creep us out. Plus, you can’t drink a Bud Light anymore without someone making a joke about how you’re going to turn gay. Of course, it’s wrong to make jokes like that. I would never condone that behavior. I mean, I do laugh at the jokes, but I feel bad about it afterward. Sometimes. Okay, never.

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