Bud Light sales plummeted from last year in the week leading up to July 4, a sign the conservative boycott over the brand’s partnership with a transgender influencer isn’t easing up.
Sales of the beer in the week ending on June 24 were 27.9 percent lower than during the same period last year. The brand’s troubling numbers come despite Bud Light giving out rebates for free beer ahead of Independence Day weekend.
Parent company Anheuser-Busch offered customers a $15 rebate when buying a 15-pack of Budweiser, Bud Light, Budweiser Select, or Budweiser Select 55, meaning free beer in places where the cost of a pack is $15.
The company has also upped its advertising spending this summer to try and win back its alienated customers.
The brand’s troubles began in April when its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney became public. Mulvaney revealed the collaboration on social media on April 1, showing a Bud Light can featuring the influencer’s face. Mulvaney also posted a video drinking Bud Light in a bathtub.
Bud Light has lost its position as America’s top selling beer. It was the second-best-selling beer in the four weeks leading up to June 3, making up 7.3 percent of U.S. retail-store beer purchases. Modelo took first place with 8.4 percent of sales, the Wall Street Journal reported. Anheuser-Busch’s market cap has fallen by $20 billion.
Mulvaney slammed Bud Light last week for failing to offer support after the blowback.
“I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did,” Mulvaney said in a video. “I’ve been scared to leave my house.”
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