Which beverage brand would ignore a market of US $1.1 trillion?
Not Anheuser-Busch (AB), the brewer of Bud Light, the light beer that is fell in the throes of unwelcome controversy.
“Bud Light” arrived in the market when AB changed its previous “Budweiser” beer to “Bud Light” in 1990.
Bud Light poured itself into the growing “light beer” segment. Unlike full-strength beers, light beers have a lower alcohol percentage and lower calories.
In the market, AB’s Bud Light often found itself going head-to-head with Miller Lite, another popular brand brewed by the SABMiller owned ‘The Miller Brewing Company.’
Dylan Mulvaney, who gained LGBTQ popularity due to documenting her own training process via social media in humorous and creative ways, was a natural proposition for AB to promote the beer within the LGBTQ segment. Commonly known as the ‘pink market’, the LGBTQ segment is a US $1.1 trillion (and a growing) patch of greener grass that more and more brands are quietly itching to munch on.
On April 2, acting as a sponsored star, Mulvaney promoted Bud Light on what is now widely known as the “Happy March Madness” Tik Tok. Apart from appearing in the video she also wrote: “Happy March Madness!! 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! #budlightpartner “
While this was a pure product promotion event aimed at the pink market, factors such as a ‘transgender woman’ promoting a beer brand that is widely used by the mainstream consumer market, some consumers not accepting Mulvaney as a ‘real woman’ and the beer brand itself seen as ‘trying to normalize’ transgenderism, pushed the event from a mere ‘product promotion’ to a raging socio-cultural storm, unexpectedly tanking Bud Light’s already not so outstanding sales and market prospects.
Light beer brands have become more and more popular and were fast movers in the beer market. Still, this has not been the case for Bud Light, lately. Speaking to CNN, Bryan Roth, Editor of the alcohol beverage newsletter says that Bud Light sales have been declining for years. The Mulvaney controversy has “snowballed” the declining situation and “made its troubles even more pronounced.”
Interestingly, Bud Light became very quiet on the social media phase for almost two weeks despite a firestorm raging outside.
When PRNEWSonline conducted a LinkedIn poll to see how PR professionals were viewing the situation, a massive 85% of communicators said brands “need to own their actions, rather than backpedaling”.
Ten percent of communication professionals said the Company made a mistake.
(prnwesonline writes about the Poll: “The poll post prefaced the above question with background surrounding the campaign action and reaction of Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch. The published statement does not directly address the Dylan Mulvaney influencer post or the social media silence that followed, nor does it offer specific apology language, but it includes vague acknowledgment of the situation.”)
For brands and PR professionals, the lesson is clear: “It is important to react fast. Still, it would be even more important to own the actions of the Brand.”
As additional lessons, Prnewsonline.com recommends not to ‘go silent’ when the brand becomes the center of controversial attention. It also recommends to beware of Pinkwashing (similar to greenwashing seen in ESG. Pinkwashing is trying to benefit from LGBTQ+ messaging and marketing, financially and reputationally).
Lgbt-capital.com, principally focused on the LGBT consumer segment as a credible investment sector, estimates the present LGBTQ purchasing power globally at US $3.7 trillion. The US alone-the epicenter of the Mulvaney controversy- is a $1.1 trillion market.
Talks of Pinkwashing aside, which brand could afford to ignore such eye-popping numbers anyway?
