Things haven’t gotten any better for Bud Light, which is continuing to face serious consequences for its decision to bring on Dylan Mulvaney, the transgender social media influencer, as a social media marketer for the brand headed into the March Madness playoffs.
Though the boycott began in early April as outrage grew following the April 1 advertisement, it is apparently still going strong as Americans switch to other brands and dodge Bud Light’s woke beer in preference of something that is at least not openly hostile to their values.
Such is what the latest NielseniQ data, which was provided to FOX Business by Bump Williams Consulting shows. According to that data, beer sales were up slightly for the latest week for which there is data, the week ending August 19th, but Bud Light was still down significantly over that time,
In fact, total beer sales in the United States were, for that week compared to the same time in 2022, up by 2.2%. But while that number grew slightly, Bud Light crashed by 26.8% on a dollar basis and an even worse 30.3% by volume sold. Anheuser Busch generally suffered alongside it, with its dollar sales down by 10.5% as volume sales crashed by an even more painful 14.4%.
The data was nearly as bad for Bud Ligh in retail sales. with its sales at places like grocery stores and gas stations down by 15.9% on a dollar basis and 20.1% on a volume basis for the same week. That’s slightly less bad than the total sales decline, but still painful.
Meanwhile, other brands took Bud Light’s dismal failure to recover as their opportunity to succeed. Modelo, the brand brewed and distributed by Constellation Brands in the United States and which is the current king of beers in the United States, managed to increase its sales by 10.3% in dollars and 9.6% in volume for the week ended August 19. In so doing, it managed to increase its share of the total beer sales to 8.4% compared to Bud Light’s 8.2%.
Other brands managed to capitalize on the situation as well. For the same week, Miller Lite was up 18.5% in sales and 12.3% in volume, Coors Light was up 21.6% in sales and 15.7% in volume, and Yuengling Lager was up 19.7% in sales and 15.6% in volume. Yuengling is by far the best of the bunch, as it is owned by a Trump supporter and is America’s oldest brewery.
Bud Light’s continued failure is one of the reasons why Busch Light Heir Billy Busch offered to buy back the company to turn it around. He said, “It’s absolutely a serious offer. My family worked so hard and dedicated so much to build this company over decades. It’s great American history… to see this iconic brand now going in the direction it’s going, it’s really a sad day.”
Continuing, he added, “I haven’t made any offer at this point, but I’m sure that it’s probably worth, at this point, pennies on the dollar. I don’t see InBev making money on it right now. It’s probably costing them money. So, maybe they’d really be able to give me a great price to buy it from them.”
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