Recently, America’s oldest beer Yuengling, brought on golf influencer Madi Frerking to promote “Yuengling Flight.” Frerking is a professional golfer based out of Houston who has worked with Yuenling in the past and appeals to the target audience of the beer. Learning a lesson from Bud Light and capitalizing on available market share, Yuengling has seized this opportunity to bring in new customers.
Bud Light enacted a disastrous promotional partnership in early April with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The endless backlash against Bud Light that has ensued over the past few months is perhaps the biggest marketing case study on how not to manage relations with your target audience. A perpetual boycott against the beer has inflicted massive financial consequences.
However, Yuengling has opted to stay true to the values of those who enjoy its products. While Bud Light sales continue to plummet, competitors are kicking off marketing campaigns that are the exact opposite of the Mulvaney partnership, as demonstrated by Frericks’s collaboration with Yunegling. See one of Madi’s promotional Twitter posts below.
We #RaiseTheBar . Come join us up here @yuenglingbeer #ad pic.twitter.com/m4IPhRUgBZ
— Madi Frerking (@houstongolfgirl) September 16, 2022
While Yuenling made this move, Dylan Mulvaney spoke out against Bud Light, slamming the woke beer for staying firm enough in their commitment to Mulvaney. Executives at Anheuser-Busch have refused to address the Mulvaney issue head-on, which has angered conservatives because the company wouldn’t outright apologize to its target consumer base and vow not to repeat such a partnership.
However, this indirectness has also angered the left because they feel Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light haven’t been woke enough and doubled down on their commitment to Mulvaney and the LGTBQ community. Mulvaney went on a rant about this during a video posted to social media, watch it below.
Dylan Mulvaney breaks his silence following the Bud Light fiasco. pic.twitter.com/Cg4Rw8w2wo
— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) June 30, 2023
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Mulvaney addressed how the Bud Light boycott blew up, stating, “I took a brand deal with a company that I loved, and I posted a sponsored video to my page. And it must have been a slow news week because the way that this ad got blown up, you would have thought I was like on a billboard or on a TV commercial or something major, but no, it was just an Instagram video.”
The transgender activist addressed the subsequent backlash from the boycott claiming to be scared from it. “I bring it up, because what transpired from that video was more bullying. And transphobia than I could have ever imagined. And I should have made this video once ago, but I did. And I was scared and I was scared of more backlash and I felt personally guilty for what transpired so I patiently waited for things to get better, but surprise they haven’t really.”
Then Mulvaney criticized Bud Light for not being even woker than they already are stating, “For a company to hire a trans person and not publicly stand by them is worse in my opinion than not hiring a trans person because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful and they want and the hate doesn’t end with me. It has serious and grave consequences.”