Mulvaney, who is transgender, shared a promotional video on April 1 of Bud Light sending her a gift to celebrate 365 days since transitioning.
Backlash from the political right hit almost instantly, as any hopes for an April Fool’s joke disintegrated.
Country music star and rapper Kid Rock responded with his own video on Instagram, in which the 52 year old shared his “clear and concise” thoughts on the partnership by using an assault rifle to shoot up stacked cases of the light beer.
He followed up the scene of destruction by flipping off the camera and saying, “F*** Bud Light and f*** Anheuser-Busch” (Anheuser-Busch is the parent brewing company that makes Bud Light and Budweiser).
The partnership is part of a larger rebranding campaign organized by Alissa Heinerscheid, the vice president of Bud Light for Anheuser-Busch to update the company’s “frat boy” image.
When we looked at this job to be done, attracting new drinkers, we started out with who we are and what do we stand for,” Heinerscheid told Forbes in February of this year. “We’d been pretty inconsistent in our messaging over the years, and we need to establish who we are and consistently message this in years to come.
A phrase she has used in media appearances and press materials since taking the Bud Light helm has been that she wants to “evolve and elevate” the brand.
“What does evolve and elevate mean? it means inclusivity. It means shifting the tone. It means having a tone that feels inclusive and feels lighter and brighter and different and appeals to women and men and representation is at the heart of evolution,” said Heinerscheid during an interview on the March 23 episode of the Make Yourself at Home podcast.
Heinerscheid is the first woman to lead the Bud Light brand in its 41 year history, and has deleted her social media pages – including her LinkedIn page – in the aftermath of Mulvaney’s video.
Her strategy appears to be alienating a portion of Bud Light’s long-time customer base, as Anheuser-Busch’s stock fell 3% Monday amidst the backlash.
Like Rock, other figures in the country music world are not taking the news of the partnership well.
Country singer Travis Tritt said he’s removing all Anheuser-Busch products from his upcoming tour and singer John Rich (of the duo Big & Rich) said no one will buy Bud Light at his downtown Nashville bar.
As more corporations across the country throw their weight behind left-leaning social issues – a move criticized by those on the left as ‘woke capitalism‘ – to appeal to the on-average much more liberal Millennial and Gen Z generations, backlash from conservatives continues to grow.
There are, I think understandably, concerns when a corporation puts reaching new customers and putting new political statements and entering a culture war above turning a profit,” explained Sarah Parshall Perry, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation.
While the iconic brewer is still beating competitors in sales, industry analysts say distributors in the South and Heartland are “spooked.“
Anheuser-Busch has a history of partnering with and donating to LGBTQ+ organizations, well before the right-wing backlask to the Dylan Mulvaney deal.
Source: On Your Side
