Cowardly Bud Light to ‘stay in our lane’ after Dylan Mulvaney anti-trans backlash
Dylan Mulvaney was the victim of transphobic backlash over her social media collaboration with Bud Light. (Credit: Getty Images)
A Bud Light boss has said the brand will “stay in our lane”, following anti-trans backlash over a video with influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Mulvaney found herself on the receiving end of abuse after she collaborated with the beer brand for a single sponsored Instagram post last year.
Soon after, right-wingers threatened to boycott the beer, with some seen smashing bottles on supermarket shelves. Musician Kid Rock even made a video of himself shooting several cans.
Following calls for a boycott, parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev reported in August that US sales of the beer had fallen dramatically.
In future, the company will avoid political and social issues, and “stay in our lane” following “a very difficult moment”, bosses at Anheuser-Busch InBev have now said.
“The major learning was: ‘Hey, I want to enjoy [Bud Light] when I’m not having to think about all of this, and I want to enjoy it with my friends,” Jason Warner, AB InBev’s chief executive Europe Zone, told The Telegraph.
“‘I want sports, I want music, I want fun, I want friends. I want everybody to be happy together. Unfortunately, the output of that was the complete opposite, which is not what we’re there to do.”
Following the intense anti-trans hate, Mulvaney spoke out against Bud Light, claiming the brand did not do enough to “stand by” her at the time.
In an Instagram video last June, she revealed that she’d faced bullying and transphobia that made her “scared to leave my house”, after the advert was seen.
“What transpired was more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined… I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did,” she claimed.
“For a company to hire a trans person, then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all. The hate doesn’t end with me, it has serious and grave consequences for the rest of our community… to turn a blind eye and pretend everything is OK, isn’t an option right now.”
Following Bud Light’s handling of the anti-trans backlash, LGBTQ+ advocacy group Human Rights Campaign (HRC) warned Anheuser-Busch that it faced having its 100 per cent Corporate Equality Index score lowered.
“Anheuser-Busch had a key moment to stand up and demonstrate the importance of their values of diversity, equity and inclusion, and their response really fell short,” an HRC spokesperson said.
