Bud Light’s transgender influencer backlash—what brands can learn from the controversy

As the saying goes, there's no such thing as bad publicity. But that might be hard to believe after watching conservative consumers respond to Bud Light’s partnership with transgender creator Dylan Mulvaney. The backlash has led to sales declines, according to early evidence, and put brand owner Anheuser-Busch InBev on the defensive. The dilemma highlights the challenges faced by brands that become involved in the debate on transgender rights, an issue that has emerged as one of today’s hot-button cultural issues. After the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage, transgender identity and rights have become the unifying cause among conservatives, as documented recently by The New York Times. Now brands and marketers may have to decide if they want to weigh in on a political flashpoint. In the long run, data shows that inclusive marketing resonates with the next wave of customers—but reaching them may mean making a brand’s core audience uncomfortable.More: Bud Light and Dylan Mulvaney—marketing experts react “Brands know that LGBTQ inclusion is good for business,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, CEO and president of the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), a media monitoring organization. “It reaches our community and also reaches the growing number of consumers who want to see their LGBTQ friends and family members in ads and campaigns. When brands authentically portray LGBTQ people it reflects the world around us and improves the brand's reputation among all consumers, especially younger consumers.” A Gallup poll found that last year almost 20% of Gen Z identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or trans. Trans influencers including Jesse Sullivan, Jamie Raines, Ilya Selyn, and Zaya Perysian have millions of followers. Mulvaney has 12.6 million followers across TikTok and Instagram. Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, recently responded to a tweet about his trans friend Chris Tyson: “All this transphobia is starting to piss me off.” A report released in December 2022 by GLAAD and the Edelman Trust Institute also found that if a brand publicly supports and demonstrates a commitment to expanding and protecting LGBTQ rights, Americans are two times more likely to buy or use the brand. Marketing experts point to the similar pushback brands got around same-sex marriage equality. In the 1990s and 2000s, brands began to openly advertise to LGBTQ+ customers. Those forays didn’t always go smoothly, such as Target’s ads in 2014 that included a gay couple and their son, or when the Hallmark Channel pulled a Zola commercial in 2019 that showed a lesbian couple getting married. But today, polling suggests that consumers are less likely to support transgender rights than same-sex marriage and abortion rights. A 2022 poll by the Public Policy Research Institute, a nonpartisan research group, found that 68% of respondents favored allowing same-sex couples to marry, including 49% of Republicans. But, a poll by the Pew Research Center found that 58% of Americans supported requiring that transgender athletes compete on teams that match the sex they were assigned at birth; 85% of Republicans held that view. Does this mean marketers should think twice before working with trans creators? “By and large it shouldn’t,” said Ian Johnson, CEO of Out Now, an LGBTQ+ inclusion consulting firm, pointing to millennials and Gen Z having a higher level of acceptance of trans people. “If this was a Pride campaign, I don't think it would have been as striking to people,” Evan Horowitz, CEO and founder of agency Movers+Shakers, said referring to Mulvaney’s Bud Light social media post, where she joked about learning about March Madness and promoted Bud Light’s #EasyCarry Contest. “Any good marketer understands that if you engage in a social conversation, there is a risk of backlash. But to some extent, I think it’s random. It’s like throwing matches—they usually hit a stone and die out.” But the backlash against Bud Light was particularly fierce, and long-lasting, compared with typical flare-ups. ‘Take a look at who is saying what’ Experts say it would not have received this level of backlash if not for Kid Rock’s initial response video posted on Twitter on April 3—in which he shot cases of Bud Light—which fueled more reaction, including the creation of Conservative Dad’s Ultra Right 100% Woke-Free American Beer. Bud Light sales fell 6.9% on a year-over-year basis in the week after Mulvaney’s post, as the total beer/seltzer category rose 5.6%, according to NielsenIQ data cited by Beer Business Daily. “Social media ‘outrage’ is something all marketers have needed to learn to adapt to,” said Johnson. “What is important is to take a look at who is saying what. If those who are expressing strident negative views can be seen to represent a niche slice of society, with a track record of ‘taking offense’—and they are likely to again soon be upset at another equality issue that offends them—then a brand could be expected to consider that this is not representative of majority views.” Bud Light is working to reach younger, more inclusive drinkers, according to Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s VP of marketing. “This brand is in decline, it’s been in decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand there will be no future for Bud Light,” Heinerscheid said on the podcast Make Yourself at Home on March 23. “So I had this super clear mandate, we need to evolve and elevate this incredibly iconic brand … [This] means inclusivity. It means shifting the tone. It means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive and feels lighter and brighter and different, and appeals to women and to men. And representation is at the heart of evolution.” But after the Mulvaney backlash, the brand did not exactly jump in to voice support for LGBTQ+ rights. Its initial statement simply reiterated that it “works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics.” Then it went silent on social media for days before issuing a vague statement from U.S. CEO Brendan Whitworth that did not directly address the controversy, saying the brewer “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.” Sibling brand Budweiser on April 14 seemingly tried to change the conversation with an overtly patriotic ad that included a subtle 9/11 reference, which was posted to social media. It was met with a wave of criticism, mostly from conservatives, including one person who tweeted “Far too late for this pandering now. I've drawn my line in the sand against ridiculous wokeismcriticism.” pic.twitter.com/T3TVGEzIi0— Budweiser (@budweiserusa) April 14, 2023 “Bud Light is in a tough spot,” said Tim Calkins, associate chair and clinical professor of marketing at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. “It can’t say it doesn’t support Dylan, but they can’t be 100% against their core customers. Ideally you want to be inclusive, but not to the degree of sending away your current customers. That’s a delicate balance.” From 2022: Recognizing International Transgender Day of Visibility Transgender inclusion in ads and marketing has been slowly growing for several years. In 2019, Pantene created a video series that featured transgender people going home for the holidays. That same year, a Gillette ad showed a dad teaching his trans son to shave. Black trans model Jari Jones was the face of a Calvin Klein Pride campaign in 2020. In 2021, Citi and Mastercard let trans people update the name on their credit cards. Last year, Adidas featured trans Brazilian volleyball player Tifanny Abreu. Impossible?No.I'm possible.#ImpossibleIsNothinghttps://t.co/xf6UsA7hGu pic.twitter.com/l5LEjYl8La— adidas (@adidas) February 14, 2022 View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jari Jones (@iamjarijones) Even in the alcohol category, brands have worked with LGBTQ+ personalities without too much fuss. In February of last year, Anheuser-Busch competitor Molson Coors ran a campaign for hard seltzer Vizzy that featured trans drag queen Taina Norell. In December, an ad from Diageo-owned J&B showed a grandfather in Spain embracing a transgender grandchild played by Ella Di Amore, a transgender actor who was in the process of gender transition. Jack Daniel’s ran a Pride campaign featuring members of “RuPaul’s Drag Race” that recently came under fire, despite the campaign being two years old. None of them reached the level of controversy of Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney—which illustrates how much the transgender rights issue has heated up in recent months, if not weeks, as it becomes fodder for conservative media. One example—Tucker Carlson took aim at M&M’s candies for being “woke,” after Mars rebranded some of the spokescandies as part of a frivolous Super Bowl campaign. Bud Light’s enemies include Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who is calling for consumers to boycott the "woke" brand. Donald Trump Jr., on the other hand, wants to end the boycott and not punish an “American, iconic” company. Most industry experts think the bad press will pass. “The Bud Light controversy will dissipate and we expect this one incident will not leave negative damage,” said Out Now’s Johnson. “What will matter is to what extent the brand is able to re-position to align with the values of the majority of U.S. consumers over the next five to 10 years. The LGBTQ+ consumer market is likely to play an increasingly important and visible role in this, reflecting the growing majority of the total U.S. consumer market.” Sign up for Ad Age newsletters From influencer marketing to agencies, get the latest news and analysis delivered to your inbox Click here

Bud Light’s transgender influencer backlash—what brands can learn from the controversy

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