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“The CEO of Anheuser-Busch has responded to backlash and calls to boycott Bud Light over the brand’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. CEO Brendan Whitworth said the company ‘never meant to be part of a discussion that divides people’ in a lengthy statement published to Anheuser-Busch’s social media accounts on Friday.” WATE
The right criticizes Bud Light’s initial decision, arguing that Mulvaney performs an offensive caricature of womanhood.
“Mulvaney first hit prominence doing what appeared to be sketch comedy but actually wasn’t: a TikTok series called ‘365 Days of Girlhood’ in which the biological man Dylan transformed himself into a girl. Mulvaney kicks off the first video of the series saying, ‘I’ve already cried three times. I wrote a scathing email that I didn’t send. I ordered dresses online that I couldn’t afford. And when someone asked me how I was I said ‘I’m fine!’ when I wasn’t fine.’…
“In another video, Dylan shows off a pair of pleather shorts and expresses surprise that people stared ‘directly at my crotch. Oh, I forgot that my crotch doesn’t look like other women’s crotches sometimes because mine doesn’t look like a little Barbie pocket.’ Women, we cry all the time, spend too much money and have a… Barbie pocket, is it?…
“For this caricature of womanhood, Mulvaney has been rewarded with endorsement deals from brand after brand: Kate Spade, Ulta Beauty, CeraVe, Instacart and recently Nike and Bud Light… Trans people have always existed, and everyone was fine with it. The criticism of Dylan Mulvaney is about something else entirely. Women deserve more than to be lampooned and have an array of brands celebrate.”
Karol Markowicz, New York Post
“It's not even that the entirety of Bud Light's base reflexively rejects transgender people — rather, it's that Mulvaney, who makes a mockery of women with her puerile performance of a hyperactive, ignorant, and ridiculous preteen girl, is genuinely one-of-a-kind obnoxious. Some young people — yes, including much-maligned young, white males — will always gravitate toward cheap, reliable, and inoffensive beers, especially when hosting parties, ‘fratty’ soirees, or otherwise. If Bud Light explicitly rejects these customers, its competitors can and should take advantage.”
Tiana Lowe, Washington Examiner
“Anheuser-Busch distributors were ‘spooked’ by the effects of the advertising campaign, and it ‘appears likely Bud Light took a volume hit in some markets over the holiday weekend,’ according to Beer Business Daily. Numbers from local bars showed sales of Bud Light and other Anheuser-Busch products dropping by anywhere from 30% to 80%. And when this downturn is all over, assuming it does end, those sales will be gone forever. It's not as if all those people are going to go back and make up for all the Bud Light they didn't buy or drink in the meantime…
“In a way, it’s poetic. Bud Light thought that a man playing the caricature of a woman would appeal to its own caricature of young people, who would see a transgender TikTok user drinking their beer and then decide to become dedicated Bud Light customers. Even if the backlash from Bud Light’s actual customer base fades over the coming months, it is clear that the company accomplished nothing other than hurting its own brand, all because its marketing department was deluded into thinking that social media is just like real life.”
Zachary Faria, Washington Examiner
The left criticizes Bud Light’s reaction to the backlash, and argues that conservative critics are out of touch with young people.
The left criticizes Bud Light’s reaction to the backlash, and argues that conservative critics are out of touch with young people.
“This is not so much a story about trans rights, Dylan Mulvaney or internet outrage, as one about corporate bravery. Even Mulvaney’s harshest critics must acknowledge that she is standing tall in a hurricane of hate, taking the invective with remarkable poise. In cowardly contrast, Anheuser-Busch instantly retreated into the shadows. Ditching its regular schedule of promotion, Bud Light ceased posting to Instagram on March 30 and to Twitter on April 2; Anheuser-Busch was absent from Twitter and Instagram after April 1…
“‘We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people’ sure sounds like a complex issue being thrown under the bus. It’s frankly implausible that Bud Light gave no thought to the impact of its Mulvaney collaboration — especially as ‘inclusivity’ is central to the brand strategy…
“Bud Light actively and eagerly sought out a controversial influencer in a dangerously polarized space, with neither the wisdom to plan for a backlash nor the bravery to stand by its partner… Bud Light’s action is worse than a gaffe, it’s a betrayal.”
Ben Schott, Bloomberg
“It’s worth noting here that AB InBev is hardly some pro-trans hero… Anheuser-Busch has made multiple donations to anti-LGBTQ and anti-trans politicians over time — Popular Info has a whole rundown of the company’s activities… While corporate decisions sometimes serve as flash points in America’s culture wars, it’s probably important to point out that, by and large, they don’t have values. Or rather, they have only one: money.”
Emily Stewart, Vox
“Like the Republican Party’s approach to young voters, the right-wing anger at Bud Light at times misunderstands the problem that is being addressed. The New York Post, for example, suggested that brands like Bud Light are pressured into reaching out to spokespeople like Mulvaney because they’re terrified of falling short on a third-party measure of their inclusivity. ‘At stake is their Corporate Equality Index — or CEI — score, which is overseen by the Human Rights Campaign, the largest LGBTQ+ political lobbying group in the world,’ the paper’s Dana Kennedy wrote Friday…
“Those under age 30 are 16 percentage points more likely to say the country hasn’t gone far enough to welcome those who are transgender than they are to say we’ve gone too far, according to Pew. Those age 65 and up are 12 points more likely to say we’ve gone too far. But since much of the outcry is coming from those who view transgender Americans with hostility, the Mulvaney spot is framed as being inexplicable outside of the context of some all-powerful report card offered by a nonprofit organization…
“It’s the same response we see from people like Elon Musk to the fact that younger people are more likely to vote Democratic: It must be because they are somehow indoctrinated. It can’t be that they simply have different values or beliefs.”
Philip Bump, Washington Post
