Bud Light Offers to Buy Back Expired Beer amid Dylan Mulvaney Boycott

Anheuser-Busch is offering to buy back unsold cases of Bud Light from wholesalers stuck with expired inventory as the fallout over its partnership with transgender social-media influencer Dylan Mulvaney has sent sales plummeting since April.

“In the current environment in the social media landscape, you know that consumer brands in different situations might be pulled into the discussion,” the beer giant’s chief executive, Michel Doukeris, told the Wall Street Journal in an interview that was published on Sunday. “With one can, one post,” the CEO added, “we saw how this grew.”

In early May, Bud Light offered free beer to every employee of the company’s distributors in an attempt to reassure them amid millions of dollars in lost sales.

The gesture came on the heels of a report from Bump Williams Consulting, a firm specializing in the alcohol beverage industry, which found that sales of Bud Light had dropped by more than 25 percent in the weeks immediately after the Mulvaney campaign. For the entire month of April, sales were reportedly down 21.4 percent as Budweiser sales similarly slagged 11.5 percent.

Since the original controversy in early April, Anheuser-Busch has sought to pivot away from contentious cultural issues towards a more patriotic tone.

In mid April, the company released a new advertisement seemingly appealing to consumers frustrated by the Mulvaney partnership. “Let me tell you a story about a beer rooted in the heart of America,” a gravelly-voiced narrator says over scenes of Budweiser’s trademark Clydesdale horse galloping through the Grand Canyon and underneath the Gateway Arch in St. Louis.

“Found in a community where a handshake is a sure contract. Brewed for those who found opportunity in the challenge and hope in tomorrow. Raised by generations willing to sip, share, risk, remember. This is a story bigger than beer: this is the story of the American spirit,” the clip concludes.

Still, the efforts failed to stem the unease among financial markets. In mid May, an HSBC financial analyst specializing in the sector, downgraded the company’s stock to a “hold” as growing fears rocked investor confidence.

“Is ABI’s leadership getting the brand culture transformation right? It’s mixed,” Carlos Laboy wrote in a memo first reported by CNBC. “At Ambev, we think the answer is ‘yes;’ in the US, we think it’s ‘no.’ The way this Bud Light crisis came about a month ago, management’s response to it and the loss of unprecedented volume and brand relevance raises many questions.”

Bud Light, the best-selling beer in the United States, is now planning on teaming up with a military veterans group for the first time in a bid to rehabilitate its image in the wake of its failed partnership with Mulvaney.