NYT Reveals How Desperate Bud Light Really Is - Will It Ever Recover?

By Samantha Chang June 30, 2023 at 6:41am

For the past 20 years, Bud Light was the top-selling beer in the United States — until this spring, when sales tumbled following a harebrained marketing decision to use transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney to promote the brand.

The New York Times captured the current state of Bud Light in an article Thursday headlined “Cheaper Than Water? Retailers Try to Unload Bud Light.”

The stock of Bud Light manufacturer Anheuser-Busch InBev has crashed more than 15 percent since early April, the report said. Last month, Modelo Especial replaced Bud Light as the top-selling beer in the U.S.

Indeed, some industry experts say the damage to the brand has been so calamitous that it might never recover.

Andy Wagner, the manager of Glenn Miller’s Beer & Soda Warehouse in Lemoyne, Pennsylvania, said Bud Light sales at his distribution center have tanked 45 percent since April.

“At this point, it’s cheaper than some of the cases of water we’re selling in the back,” Wagner told the Times. “It’s just not moving like it used to.”

Bud Light is struggling to win back once-loyal customers after being steamrolled by a crushing conservative boycott.

According to Wagner, Anheuser-Busch made a fatal error when it broke longstanding “bar rules” of avoiding politics and religion in its marketing.

“It’s not that [customers] stopped drinking beer,” he said. “They just stopped buying Bud Light.”

Will the brand ever recover with its customer base?

Wagner also said it’s possible that Bud Light might never recover some of its lost customers in the wake of the Mulvaney debacle.

“I’ve seen longtime Bud Light customers trying other beers,” he said. “If they find something they like, they may not come back.”

Other industry experts agree that the damage Bud Light did when it cavalierly used a man pretending to be a woman to promote its beer could have long-term consequences beyond just this summer.

At the moment, Bud Light is being decimated during the critical summer sales season — May through August — which makes up as much as 40 percent of annual beer sales.

“Here we are about 10 weeks into it, and we’re still seeing double-digit declines in volumes nationally,” beverage industry consultant Bump Williams told the Times. “This is no longer an anomaly. This is a trend of concern.”

Anheuser-Busch is so desperate to staunch the bleeding that it’s giving away $10,000 a week as part of its “Easy to Summer” campaign.

Over the Fourth of July weekend, it’s also offering $15 rebates on a 15-pack of Bud Light and Budweiser.

This made me laugh. Bud Light is offering a $15 rebate (94% off) on their 18 pack for 4th of July. #GoWokeGoBroke pic.twitter.com/Z0u4WtHxLt

— Olivia (@Liv_e_t) June 23, 2023

Since a 15-pack sells for less than $15 in many areas of the country, that amounts to giving the beer away.

Who would have thought that a mega-corporation would be so desperate that it’s having trouble giving away beer in the summer at a time when grocery prices are at historic highs?

Oh, how the mighty have fallen.

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