Hundreds Laid Off at Anheuser-Busch After Bud Light’s Disastrous Dylan Mulvaney Marketing Campaign
AP Photo/Jeff Chiu
Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch announced that it’d be laying off 350 corporate employees on Thursday, after months of poor sales fueled by a conservative boycott of the product.
The firm, which is best known for its flagship products Budweiser and Bud Light, said that the layoffs would affect less than 2% of its 18,000 employees, and would not affect blue collar workers such as warehouse staff and drivers, according to CNBC.
In a statement, CEO Brendan Whitworth explained that the company’s leadership “never take these decisions lightly,” they were also resolved “to ensure that our organization continues to be set for future long-term success.”
“These corporate structure changes will enable our teams to focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in the moments that matter,” he continued.
The boycott of the product began as a result of the brand’s decision to partner with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney — who has denounced legislation aimed at preventing minors from receiving sex-reassignment treatments or surgeries to change their sex — for a marketing campaign in April.
Alissa Heinerscheid, the vice president of marketing at the company, had touted such campaigns as a way to “evolve and elevate” Anheuser-Busch’s brand through “inclusivity.”
As a result of the ensuing boycott, sales have fallen off by somewhere around 30% in 2023 as compared to the year before, and Bud Light, previously the top-selling beer in the United States, has been surpassed by Modelo. Heinerscheid has since been placed on leave.
Whitworth has professed never to have wanted “to be part of a discussion that divides people,” and acknowledged that “the discussion surrounding our company and Bud Light has moved away from beer, and this has impacted our consumers, our business partners, and our employees.”
“As we move forward, we will focus on what we do best — brewing great beer and earning our place in moments that matter to you,” he added.
Mulvaney has expressed frustration with Bud Light’s reaction to the boycott.
“For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all, because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want,” she argued late last month.
