Bud Light’s Marketing VP Takes a Leave of Absence and Will Be Replaced

Some of us wondered whether Bud Light’s vice president of marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, really understood her company’s customers — and who could be persuaded to drink Bud Light, and who could not.

Apparently Anheuser-Busch has similar doubts:

Alissa Heinerscheid, marketing VP for the brand since June 2022, has taken a leave of absence, the brewer confirmed, and will be replaced by Todd Allen, who was most recently global marketing VP for Budweiser.

Heinerscheid did not immediately respond to an email requesting comment.

…According to a statement from City Distributors, a Topeka, Kans.-based Anheuser-Busich distributor, the custom can decision “circumvented the proper approval channels.”

Anheuser-Busch was silent on the matter for two weeks before issuing a statement on April 14 from CEO Brendan Whitworth, who wrote that “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”

When the Bud Light controversy blew up, some of us contended the company had made a serious error, that alienated and repelled a certain portion of existing customers while not attracting significant numbers of new customers. We were assured that we were old and out of touch, and that sending a can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney with Mulvaney’s face on it was a brilliant move that demonstrated that Bud Light was now the preferred taste of the young and sophisticated.

Well, it appears that Anheuser-Busch does not agree with the assessment that the Mulvaney move was a brilliant, cutting-edge marketing strategy.