Sales of Bud Light continue to plummet, reflecting ongoing backlash to the brand’s decision to hire transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney as a spokesperson.
According to data cited by the beverage industry trade publication Beer Business Daily, sales volumes of Bud Light for the week ending May 13 sank 28.4%, extending a downward trend from the 27.7% decline seen the week before.
At a time of profound cultural and political division in the U.S., light beer drinkers simply don’t want to be drawn into another debate about values, said Beer Business Daily editor and publisher Harry Schuhmacher.
“Most people don’t care about this issue and don’t want to get roped into a conversation,” Schuhmacher said. “Therefore they’re not going to buy the beer.”
Given the wide array of choices available to beer drinkers, it’s easy to switch brands, he said.
A spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bud Light’s parent company, did not respond to a request for comment.
Mulvaney debuted her partnership with Bud Light the weekend of the NCAA Basketball Men’s and Women’s National Championship in early April. She shared a sponsored post on her Instagram account to her then-1.2 million followers promoting Bud Light’s March Madness contest.
