In the US almost everything is political, even beer. The popular Bud Light is in the eye of the hurricane for a gesture of recognition to a transgender influencer who has unleashed the ire of the most conservative sector of society, including country music stars. What began with angry protests on the networks and calls for a boycott of the brand has led in recent hours to serious threats to the proprietary brewery Anheuser-Busch.
The controversy erupted on April 1 with the publication of a promotional video on Dylan Mulvaney’s Instagram account, which has millions of followers on social networks. The influencer appeared with a Bud Light in her hand, very grateful for having received a personalized can with her face to celebrate the first anniversary of her gender transition. “I celebrate my 365 days living as a woman and Bud Light has sent me the best gift in the world,” she says with a smile. The 26-year-old actress has a quiet notoriety on social media and her post might have gone unnoticed, but for having described her transition process openly and championing LGBT rights, she has become the target of scorn from conservatives. In recent weeks, familiar faces on the American right have made calls to stop buying Bud Light, the country’s best-seller and with which they historically identified strongly, for its “trans beer.” Some of them posted pictures destroying Bud Light cans or bottles.
The most notorious case was that of the musician Kid Rock, who recorded himself shooting several boxes of beer with a rifle in a video that has more than 50 million views on Twitter, a performance that was copied by other users of the social network. “Fuck Bud Light, fuck Anheuser-Busch,” he said in his angry response.
Another well-known right-wing artist, country singer Travis Tritt, announced shortly afterward that he would boycott Anheuser-Busch products during his tour. Some defenders of this campaign against Bud Light have celebrated on social networks a drop in the beer giant’s stock price that they attributed to this movement, but finally the shares of Anheuser-Busch Inbev have ended up accumulating a rise of more than 8%.
Donald Trump Jr. came out in defense of the firm asking that this boycott be abandoned so as not to destroy an “iconic” company due to the “stupidity of someone in a marketing campaign.” The son of former US President Donald Trump, in his podcast, assured that the company is one of the most conservative among all the large firms in the United States and stressed that it donates more to Republican campaigns than to Democrats.
The Anheuser-Busch brewer, which owns Bud Light, tried a week ago to calm down and limit potential damage from a campaign trying to appeal to young consumers. “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are dedicated to uniting people around a beer,” the company’s CEO, Brendan, said in a statement posted on social media. Whitworth.
In his first public message in response to the controversy, Whitworth did not specifically mention the issue, but sought to underscore the brewer’s deep roots in the country and its commitment to “the values ??on which America was founded: freedom, hard work and respect for the other”. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis swore last Monday that he would never drink a beer of this brand again. On the opposite side, California Democrats posed on Twitter with a bottle in defense of the company.
But the controversy goes beyond the political spheres. The bars maintain the boycott mainly in red states. John Rich, a country singer and bar owner in the city of Nashville, explains on Fox News that “boxes and boxes” of Bud Light stay in the warehouse because customers no longer ask for it. Anheuser-Busch InBev has launched a patriotic campaign in recent days to overcome with typically American landscapes and the United States flag a controversy that has even led to threats to the company, according to CNN.
A company spokesman informed the US chain that they have taken measures to reinforce the security of employees and police sources confirm that there has even been a bomb threat.
Transgender people are four times more likely to be victims of violent crimes than cisgender people, according to a study by the UCLA School of Law, recalls CNN.
“Violent reaction is not uncommon,” underlines Hyunjin Seo, a professor at the University of Kansas School of Journalism who teaches marketing on social networks. “Many organizations have faced challenges and suffered backlash regarding their campaigns on social media,” he says.
Experts say that boycott calls often do not result in an actual boycott, and that controversies tend to die down, as was the case with Nike, which was the target of a boycott campaign when it introduced Colin Kaepernick. in an ad in 2018.
This Bud Light campaign with Mulvaney is in line with his LGBTQ marketing strategy, which includes selling Bud Light in rainbow cans for Pride month.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project
