Once one of the most popular beer brands in the United States, Bud Light shares have plummeted due to a significant marketing blunder that has cost the brand billions of dollars.

The brand’s precipitous decline followed a short-lived partnership with trans activist Dylan Mulvaney, a biological male who identifies as a female and acts accordingly. Conservatives fled in droves, but after the brand appeared to yield to pressure, LGBTQ Americans and restaurants also boycotted the product.

“The market value of Anheuser-Busch InBev, whose fourth bestselling brand is Bud Light, dropped $15.7 billion since April 1, based on a conversion to U.S. dollars by Investor’s Business Daily using data from S&P Global Market Intelligence,” the outlet reported this week.

“That’s the day Dylan Mulvaney, a TikTok influencer and transgender woman, pitched the Bud Light brand during the NCAA March Madness tournament.”

IBD also reported that InBev’s competitors have increased their market value by $3.2 billion.

The Western Journal reported that Bud Light sales dropped 23 percent during the week ending May 6, compared to the same period last year.

Jared Dinges, a beverage analyst at JPMorgan Chase, stated earlier in the week that InBev should anticipate a portion of the losses to be permanent, possibly a significant portion.

“We believe there is a subset of American consumers who will not drink a Bud Light for the foreseeable future,” Dinges noted. “We believe a 12 percent to 13 percent volume decline on an annualized basis would be a reasonable assumption.”

Last month, according to sources with knowledge of the situation, “no one at the company’s senior level” was aware of Bud Light’s collaboration with Mulvaney. The company immediately halted its marketing efforts and implemented a more thorough evaluation process for future influencer partnerships to prevent similar marketing missteps in the future.

“The claims come despite the company’s vice president of marketing recently touting her mandate to make the brand more ‘inclusive,’ and after the company issued a statement confirming the partnership and describing it as an attempt to ‘authentically connect with audiences across various demographics and passion points,’” The Daily Wire reported.

In early April, Mulvaney posted on Instagram, “Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever: a can with my face on it.”

“Happy March Madness!!” Mulvaney captioned his Instagram post. “Just found out this had to do with sports and not just saying it’s a crazy month! In celebration of this sports thing @budlight is giving you the chance to win $15,000! Share a video with #EasyCarryContest for a chance to win!! Good luck.”

According to influential conservative activist Rogan O’Handley, also known as DC Draino on Twitter, sources within the company informed him that C-level executives were enraged by Mulvaney’s marketing engagement. Similarly, former Newsmax host John Cardillo noted on Twitter that it appears the same executives did not sanction Mulvaney’s campaign, as reported by the news source.

More on this story via Conservative Brief:

“No one at a senior level was aware this was happening,” one source told the outlet. “Some low-level marketing staffer who helps manage the hundreds of influencer engagements they do must have thought it was no big deal. Obviously, it was, and it’s a shame because they have a well-earned reputation for just being America’s beer — not a political company. It was a mistake.” CONTINUE READING…