Company ‘never expected’ backlash and is now TRAPPED as it refuses to disavow partnership OR stand up to critics, PR expert says
- Anheuser-Busch has remained mostly silent since controversy exploded April 1
- Company’s social media accounts have fallen dormant for nearly two weeks
Bud Light parent company Anheuser-Busch appears to be trapped between a rock and a hard place as it grapples with polarization over its paid partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Since the controversy emerged on April 1, Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch’s main social media accounts have fallen silent, despite major sporting events of the kind the brand typically chimes in on.
Aside from an initial terse statement, Anheuser-Busch has also ignored media requests on the issue. Last week, a Missouri distributor canceled an event featuring the famed Budweiser Clydesdales, citing safety concerns.
‘They never expected the reaction that they got,’ said Gareth Boyd, a marketing and PR expert with Forte Analytica, speaking to DailyMail.com on Thursday as an industry observer. ‘Right now, if they respond and they don’t get it right, they’re only going to further hurt themselves.’
‘I think they’re probably trying to avoid talking about it, hoping and praying that it will go away, but it’s probably the worst thing you could possibly do,’ he added.
As the company remained on the sidelines, the controversy took on a bizarre life of its own, with musician Kid Rock posting a video of himself shooting at cases of Bud Light, and country singers John Rich and Travis Tritt publicly denouncing the brand.
And there has been backlash to the backlash, with shock jock Howard Stern slamming the fury at Bud Light as overblown, and podcaster Joe Rogan calling the conservative outrage over Mulvaney ‘goofy.’
Behind the scenes Anheuser-Busch, there have been hints of internal turmoil and finger-pointing over fallout from the controversy.
According to sources cited by the Daily Wire, ‘no one at a senior level’ was aware of the Mulvaney brand partnership before it launched, and the campaign was undertaken by a ‘low-level marketing staffer.’
Executives have ‘paused’ new marketing campaigns so they can implement a more robust vetting process for future projects, according to the report.
While media attention has focused on Bud Light VP Alissa Heinerscheid for her potential role overseeing the campaign, Boyd argued that responsibility for overseeing protocols to approve new marketing campaigns ultimately falls with the company’s CEO.
Anheuser-Busch is led by US CEO Brendan Whitworth, a former Marine lieutenant, CIA officer, and Harvard Business School graduate, who joined A-B in 2014 after serving as a senior executive at Frito-Lay.
Anheuser-Busch’s only comment on the matter has been a single statement confirming the Bud Light cans showing Mulvaney’s face were a personal gift to the influencer, and not for sale to the public.
‘Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics,’ the statement last week said.
‘From time to time we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public,’ the company added.
The statement appears to toe a fine line by avoiding direct condemnation of those who criticized the Mulvaney partnership, while also avoiding any disavowal of the partnership itself.
‘They have a really big problem, and the longer they go on not actually not releasing something concrete, it’s only going to get worse,’ observed Boyd.
Boyd questioned whether proper contingency planning was carried out at Anheuser-Busch before launching the partnership with Mulvaney, saying it appeared the company did not have a response plan in place.
‘You would have thought they would have had something saying, “okay, in a worst case scenario of backlash, what do we fall back to?”‘ he said.
In contrast, Nike faced similar online backlash over a brand partnership with Mulvaney last week, but has forged ahead with social media posts and struck back at critics.
Marketing experts say Nike may have been better positioned to respond decisively to the backlash, as its core customers skew younger and more liberal that Bud Light’s.
‘Be kind…Be inclusive,’ Nike said in a pinned Instagram comment, after a flood of comments criticizing its Mulvaney deal. ‘Hate speech, bullying, or other behaviors that are not in the spirit of a diverse and inclusive community will be deleted.’
Meanwhile, the Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts of Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch have remained silent since April 1, despite big events such as the NCAA Men’s Basketball Final and the Masters Tournament.
Michelob Ultra, another key A-B brand, has not posted on social media since April 2.
As the controversy drags on, questions are growing about whether Anheuser-Busch’s sales will suffer meaningfully from the backlash and boycotts.
The company, based in St. Louis, is a subsidiary of Belgian multinational AB InBev, which counts the United States as its largest sales market.
