By Thomas Lifson
There was a widespread expectation that the outrage over Bud Light’s pushing of transgender icon Dylan Mulvaney would fade over time, as often happens with boycotts. But not this time. Nielsen, which tracks sales scanner data released new data Tuesday showing the nightmare for Bud Light and its parent AB InBev is deepening. Josh Schafer writes at Yahoo Finance:
Bud Light sales declines are accelerating, and shares of parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev (BUD) are falling alongside them.
New data from Nielsen revealed Bud Light sales declined 24.3% year-over-year in the week ending May 20 while Budweiser sales were down 20.4% during the same period. Last week sales were down 21.6% and 17.6% respectively. Driven by backlash from an advertising campaign with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, Bud Light sales have now declined for six weeks, per Nielsen.
Shares of AbInBev fell nearly 5% on Tuesday, the worst intraday action on the stock since Mulvaney’s post on April 1. Since the day of the post, ABInBev shares have fallen roughly 18%.
Even worse for the company, other brands in its portfolio are also being hit, as Janet Freund writes for Bloomberg in a notice to subscribers that is not online:
The broader InBev beer portfolio also continues to see weakness, while Molson Coors’ Coors Light beer continues to see market share gains accelerate, he says
My guess is that ordering or drinking in public a Bud Light, or even a Budweiser or other identifiable sister brand, subjects a person to mockery. So, even those who are indifferent to the transgender propaganda tidal wave are being influenced to stay away from the brand. But it is not only in bars and at sporting events. As we showed yesterday, even when customers are paid to take the beer off the retailer’s shelf, consumers are shunning it.
It appears to me that a widespread revolt against the transgender propaganda push is underway. People are saying that enough is enough. It’s easy to switch beer brands, and Bud Light never had a devoted following. It was always been just good enough, considering it is less caloric than regular beers.
Target, which has also been suffering a sales decline over pushing transgender clothes for children at the entrance to its stores, has got to be concerned.
I suspect a major quiet rethink is taking place in the C-suites of major companies that have signed on to the transgender agenda in hopes of a good ESG score from Blackrock and other giant find managers.
