The internet exploded with rage when social media users figured out that trans activist Dylan Mulvaney was really, truly involved in a brand partnership with Bud Light beer.
At first, the promo seemed too strange to be true. It didn’t help that Mulvaney shared the promotional video clips on Saturday, which happened to be April Fool’s Day. Users questioned the campaign’s legitimacy. They were shocked when a spokesperson from the beer brand’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, confirmed their worst suspicions.
Mulvaney kicked off the wild weekend by advertising the beer company’s March Madness contest offering customers a chance to win $15,000. The influencer dressed like Audrey Hepburn’s character in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” while drinking Bud Light and claiming not to understand what March Madness even is. “I thought we were all just having a hectic month,” the activist quipped. “But it turns out it has something to do with sports!”
The video also included the hashtag #budlightpartner.
— Davy Jones (@itsNTBmedia) April 2, 2023
Another video showed the activist in the bathtub with a strategically placed tower of Bud Light cans nearby. Mulvaney laughed and frolicked in the bubble-filled tub while hold music played in the background, which football fans might remember from the Bud Light Super Bowl commercial that debuted in February.
Mulvaney showed off a personalized beer can commemorating one year of the popular TikTok video series, “Days of Girlhood,” which is how the influencer became famous in the first place.
Since then, the TikTok star has been collecting big-name brand partnerships, including KitchenAid, Kind Snacks, wedding dress brand ASOS, Native, MAC Cosmetics, and a host of others. But social media users could not understand why the St. Louis-based brewing company would select Mulvaney, a biological male who identifies as a young girl, as a good person to advertise their products.
“Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics and passion points,” a spokesperson for the company told Fox News.
“From time to time, we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public.”
The outrage was swift and brutal, with calls to boycott the company echoing across social media platforms.
“I’ve been drinking Bud Lite for more than 20 years, sadly I had my last one yesterday. Deciding on a new non-bud owned alternative today,” one Twitter reaction said.
“Water that identifies as beer,” another account quipped.
“Fire your marketing director. He/she/they just sank your company into the ground,” another user agreed.
“Bud Light made a mockery of women by partnering with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney — a biological male who makes a living exploiting what it means to be a woman,” OutKick writer David Hookstead tweeted. “We can’t even drink beer in America anymore without woke politics being involved.”
“Piss water masquerading as beer hires man masquerading as woman,” Daily Wire Editor Emeritus Ben Shapiro tweeted.
Conservative rock star Kid Rock posted a video that made his feelings about Bud Light clear.
“Grandpa’s feeling a little frisky today. Let me say something to all of you and be as clear and concise as possible.” With that, he picked up a gun and fired into cases of Bud Light beer.
— KidRock (@KidRock) April 4, 2023
Interestingly, this is not the first time Bud Light marketed to the LGBTQ community.
In 2019, the brand started selling special rainbow bottles in partnership with the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) for Pride month.
“Bud Light has been a supporter of the LGBTQ+ community since the 80s and we are excited to continue our long-standing partnership with GLAAD by collaborating with them on this new commemorative bottle that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community and everything GLAAD does to support it,” VP of Marketing Andy Goeler said at the time, as The Daily Wire originally reported.
The company also hired a woman to head up its marketing efforts as of June 2022. Alissa Heinerscheid was promoted to VP of Marketing for Bud Light, becoming the first woman to ever hold the position. She was responsible for the Super Bowl commercial “Easy to Drink, Easy to Enjoy,” which Mulvaney mimicked in recent social media posts over the weekend.
“As the first woman to lead the biggest beer brand in the world, it’s an amazing opportunity to really evolve and elevate Bud Light, this brand I love,” Heinerscheid said in February, per Forbes.
“This campaign is meant to feel different, to be lighter and brighter, with a confidence and magnetism, and it’s really critical to depict real people and real places,” she added. “What I need to do to help this brand to evolve … this is my passion point … female representation is a personal passion point of mine.”
The Bud Light exec said she believed the Super Bowl ad would usher in “a new era for Bud Light,” and would “strip away all the loudness and the distractions,” per Variety.
“When we looked at this job to be done, attracting new drinkers, we started out with who we are and what do we stand for,” Heinerscheid said of their revised advertising strategy. “We’d been pretty inconsistent in our messaging over the years, and we need to establish who we are and consistently message this in years to come.”
“As the number one beer in the industry, it’s incumbent upon us to act like a leader and set the standard,” she went on. “We’re excited to see what 2023 brings.”
The brand previously featured quirky, funny branding such as the party dog Spuds McKenzie in the late ’80s, campaigns featuring “Real Men of Genius” in the late ’90s and early ’00s, a Super Bowl ad showing men praying to a “magic fridge” full of beer in 2006. They previously partnered with celebrities such as Cedric the Entertainer, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Don Cheadle, and Reggie Watts, to name a few.
Though Heinerscheid hasn’t come forward as the driving force behind including Mulvaney in the brand partnership, there’s a good chance she knew it was happening. Only time will tell if this radical departure from the brand’s former campaigns will pay off in the end, or if it’ll fall flatter than an open can of beer left out overnight.