Recent reports indicate that Bud Light will continue to sponsor pride parades across the nation despite the massive fallout from its collaboration with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney Anheuser-Busch has lost $15.7 billion in market value since the controversy started.
The Daily Wire reported that Bud Light would sponsor at least three upcoming pride parades in Cincinnati, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; and St. Louis, Missouri. According to the article:
Bud Light is listed as a sponsor on the Cincinnati Pride Parade website. Planned Parenthood and the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, which medically transitions minors, are both also listed.
Meanwhile, in St. Louis, Missouri, where Anheuser-Busch is headquartered, the company is listed as the presenting sponsor of the St. Louis Pride Parade. A sponsorship packet explains that there are only four “presenting sponsor” slots available. The “Rainbow” sponsorship tier, located below the “presenting sponsor” tier, requires entities to pay $25,000.
Bud Light is also listed as a “Diamond Sponsor” of Stonewall Columbus, which organizes and hosts the annual Columbus, Ohio, Pride Parade. The “diamond” sponsorship tier requires companies to donate $20,000, a document from the organization specifies. The document also adds, “All Stonewall Columbus sponsors must affirm Stonewall’s diversity, equity, and inclusion policies AND agree to donate no less than 8 hours of volunteer time during a calendar year.”
Since the beginning of April, Bud Light has faced a severe decline in sales as conservative beer drinkers boycotted the beverage. Competitors of Bud Light have conversely seen their market value increase as consumers shift their preferences to other brands. The American Tribune reported:
A new report in Investor’s Business Daily estimates that the parent company of Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch InBev, has had its market value plunge by a staggering, painful $15.7 billion since the Dylan Mulvaney controversy began on April 1st of this year.
Investor’s Business Daily, to make that estimate, had to convert the data to US dollars using S&P Global Market Intelligence, beginning things with the April 1st video Mulvaney posted to advertise Bud Light during the March Madness playoffs. It found that while Bud Light has seen its market value decline by $15.7 billion, its competitors have seen their market value increase by $3.2 billion. Molson Coors has received the lion’s share of the advantage, adding about $2.2 billion in market value since the Dylan Mulvaney controversy began.
Legendary businessman Kevin O’Leary recently spoke about Bud Light’s “brand mismanagement.” He said, “Bud Light has become the poster boy for brand mismanagement. The narrative that has risen around Bud Light is a good lesson. It highlights the power of social media. People that didn’t like the message, took it out by boycotting the product immediately.”
He continued, “So when you go into gender narrative on a beer, which is primarily consumed by men, maybe you should have thought a little bit about that in reading that room. Maybe you should say, Well, does this really fit my consumers psyche and narrative.”
Harry Schumacher, editor and publisher of Beer Business Daily, spoke on the boycott and its unprecedented effects. He said, “Nobody imagined it would go on this long. It seems random — it struck a nerve. I’ve never seen anything to compare it to, in all of the [consumer packaged goods] industry. It’s a real shock. Most people don’t care about this issue and don’t want to get roped into a conversation. Therefore they’re not going to buy the beer.”
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