Bud Light tries to appease fragile bigots with camouflage redesign amid Dylan Mulvaney row
Dylan Mulvaney was the victim of transphobic backlash over her social media collaboration with Bud Light. (Credit: Getty Images)
Bud Light’s parent company is said to be temporarily redesigning some of its packaging in camouflage print in response to the backlash following its collaboration with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The company faced a deluge of attacks from anti-trans people over the collaboration, which saw Bud Light send Mulvaney a single personalised can to celebrate the first anniversary of her “Days of Girlhood” TikTok series.
The reactions were extreme. One man was arrested after destroying a shelf of beer in a Kansas Walmart store, singer Kid Rock filming himself shooting Bud Light cans and a number of country stars, including Riley Green, Travis Tritt, John Rich, and Brantley Gilbert made their feelings known – oftentimes not very subtly.
Since then, according to the New York Post, parent company Anheuser-Busch held a meeting to discuss how to handle the backlash, deciding on a temporary redesign of Bud Light and Budweiser aluminium bottles.
An anonymous source revealed that the bottles would have camouflage print and display images of the US “Folds of Honor”, an organisation that gives education scholarships to the spouses and children of dead or disabled US service men and women.
Quoting information from Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ data, the New York Post said that Bud Light has faced a major drop in sales since the collaboration, with numbers down 23.6 per cent in the week ending 6 May, compared with a year ago.
Shortly after the initial backlash, Anheuser-Busch’s chief executive, Brendan Whitworth, released a statement saying he “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people”.
However, the company is now facing something of a double-edged sword because some LGBTQ+ bars have decided to boycott the brand.
In Chicago, Sidetrack Bar and the 2Bears Tavern Group, which has four bars in the city, have decided to ditch Bud Light over its handling of the situation and “abandoning” Mulvaney.
PinkNews has contacted Anheuser-Busch for comment.
