The CEO of embattled beverage giant Anheuser-Busch refused to comment on whether the company will work with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney again following the blowback to the brand’s decision to send Bud Light featuring Mulvaney’s face to the TikTok star.
This morning CEO Brendan Whitworth joined CBS Mornings to discuss the public opposition to his brand. He was asked to comment on whether Bud Light would commit to working with Mulvaney in the future and to elaborate on the brand’s efforts to cater to the LGBT movement.
He side stepped the question about Mulvaney, insisting the deal with the influencer was limited to a single can of beer, but promised that Anheuser-Busch will continue to support the LGBT movement.
Insisting, “just to be clear, it was a gift and it was one can,” Whitworth offered a vague response about the country having “a big social conversation” and noted that “Bud Light doesn’t belong in this divisive conversation.”
In response to recent controversy, @AnheuserBusch CEO Brendan Whitworth tells CBS Mornings that his company will continue to support the LGBTQ community.
He did not directly answer the questions of whether the promotional campaign with a transgender influencer was a mistake. pic.twitter.com/19PXJQkoem
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) June 28, 2023
Still, Whitworth told CBS that Anheuser-Busch and Bud Light “will continue to support the communities and organizations that we have supported for decades.”
The network also pressed Whitworth on what the brand is doing to stop the bleeding for distributors and wholesalers of Bud Light, who themselves have allegedly been confronted by angry consumers and left to cope with a boycott sparked by corporate.
“We are announcing investment for frontline employees and their employment as well as financial support for our wholesalers,” said Whitworth. “That has started.”
.@AnheuserBusch CEO Brendan Whitworth says his company has begun sending financial assistance wholesalers, who he says have been impacted by the recent controversy surrounding a Bud Light promotion with Dylan Mulvaney. pic.twitter.com/fpEzyBWuFW
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) June 28, 2023
Whitworth also spoke about yet another new ad campaign that will apparently feature those behind the manufacture and distribution of Bud Light, though it remains to be seen how effective this will be at warming cold consumers.
Recently, Bud Light drew the ire of conservatives with a new ad that primarily featured straight, white, heterosexual couples in the aftermath of the Mulvaney fiasco.
Many of the men in the commercial were seen behaving in a comically stupid fashion: running through screen doors, unable to master a hammock or tap a keg of beer, wind blow debris in one’s face.
Conservative commentator Liz Wheeler promised the brand, “None of this is funny until & unless you apologize for using Dylan Mulvaney – a man pretending to be a woman – as your spokesperson.” She labeled the brand “insulting” for using “an ad about summer” to “make us forget our principles.” She added, “The boycott continues.”
Just prior to that ad’s release, the company’s chief marketing officer acknowledged the Mulvaney backlash was a “wake up call” and stressed the need for the company to better understand its consumers.
