When Cannes Lions announced in March that Anheuser-Busch InBev would be honored this summer as its first-ever back-to-back Creative Marketer of the Year winner, Cannes Lions CEO Simon Cook championed the brewer, saying it had “embedded a culture that ensures continued success is inevitable.”

Just a few months later, that assessment seems naive, as the company has suffered a downward spiral in the wake of Bud Light’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Conservatives boycotted the brand, progressives complained that AB InBev failed to defend LGBTQ+ rights as it dealt with the backlash, U.S. sales and market share tanked, and Bud Light shook up its marketing leadership team.

Related: Pride Month guide for brands

The situation puts the world’s largest brewer and Cannes organizers in an awkward position as they prepare to head to the south of France in June. Celebrating a company that has made multiple missteps in handling the Mulvaney matter will only fuel award-show critics who say creative trophies can be meaningless, at least when it comes to business results.

Furthermore, the festival is happening during Pride Month and promises to feature much discussion, as well as new research and initiatives, around LGBTQ+ rights—which could bring renewed questions about AB InBev’s commitment to the LGBTQ+ community in the face of financial pressures on its business. (On Tuesday, Bud Light announced a $200,000 donation to the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce, extending an existing partnership.)

Read: Bud Light announces monetary support for LGBTQ+ businesses

The brewer should “consider seriously addressing the marketing issues they face in the United States before showcasing what they have done or what they think about the wider conversation of marketing,” said one agency executive who has worked with the company, speaking on the condition of anonymity. “They have bigger fish to fry than showing up to an awards show,” this person added. “If I were the CMO, I wouldn’t go.”

But another agency executive familiar with the brewer, and a longtime Cannes attendee, said AB InBev should stick with its Cannes presence, noting that much of the work for which it is being honored does not involve Bud Light, nor the U.S. “I don’t think this is as big of an issue globally because Bud Light is a very American brand,” this person said. “They have a ton of work they should still be proud of.”

Indeed, the brewer’s 2022 Cannes haul included 49 Lions spread across 10 brands and seven countries. The company has also triumphed at other award shows lately. It won Client of the Year at The One Show, where Michelob Ultra’s “McEnroe vs. McEnroe” campaign won 11 Gold Pencils, more than any other campaign. And it took home five Grand Clios at the Clio Awards—two for that same Michelob Ultra campaign, from FCB New York, and three more for Corona’s “Plastic Fishing Tournament” from We Believers. “McEnroe vs. McEnroe” also picked up a Sports Emmy this spring.

AB InBev in a statement to Ad Age said: “The Creative Marketer of the Year by Cannes Lions recognizes the creativity and excellence of our partners and teams from across the world over several years. We look forward to attending next month’s event.”  

The brewer did not provide details on its level of participation, but as of today it is still listed on the main agenda—including for a June 19 “Creative Marketer of the Year Seminar” featuring AB InBev Global CMO Marcel Marcondes. “To put creative problem-solving squarely at the heart of your business comes with its challenges, but AB InBev have proven that when you do, it leads to an all-time high in sales volume and brand power,” reads a portion of the session description.

Cannes organizers said the June 19 session will go on as planned. “AB InBev will give a keynote on Monday morning at the Festival, where they plan to give a balanced story of their creative marketing journey,” a festival rep told Ad Age.

The brewer is expected to address the Bud Light situation in the keynote, according to people familiar with the brewer's plans. The company is also expected to bring a contingent of marketers from multiple global offices to Cannes.

As is tradition for the Creative Marketer of the Year, AB InBev is also scheduled to be honored during a segment at the final award show of Cannes week, on the evening of June 23.

More news: Navigating LGBTQ+ marketing amid the culture wars

A ‘massive dose of humility’

The brewer’s appearance—and how it addresses the Bud Light situation—will no doubt generate plenty of chatter among festival-goers.

“I have long advocated for brands to build value based on two strategic fronts—one, embrace the power of creativity, and two, step up to the responsibility of inclusivity,” said Jonathan Mildenhall, an LGBTQ+ marketer who is a co-founder and chair of TwentyFirstCenturyBrand. “AB InBev should celebrate the former, but honestly, given the speed at which it distanced itself from the Mulvaney controversy, my advice to the AB InBev team is to show up at Cannes Lions with a massive dose of humility.” 

Mildenhall’s career has included marketing stints at Airbnb and Coca-Cola Co., which earned the Cannes Creative Marketer of the Year award in 2013 while he was there. He added: “What stings the most from all this was the public statement issued by [AB InBev U.S.] CEO Brendan Whitworth. I do not recall a more vacant or hollow statement from any CEO under crisis than his statement. The failure to directly address the controversy or show support for all the communities AB InBev serves, including Mulvaney, was, candidly speaking, tone-deaf.”

On April 14, AB InBev issued a statement from Whitworth which read, in part, “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.” In that statement, Whitworth failed to address the brewer’s position on LGBTQ+ rights.

In the following weeks, Bud Light sales continued to plummet, as it faced backlash on all fronts, including from some gay bars that stopped stocking AB InBev products. JP Morgan analyst Jared Dinges recently forecast that the company’s 2023 U.S. earnings before interest and taxes will drop by 26%, as reported by Beer Marketer’s Insights, which noted that would amount to a $1.3 billion hit to the brewer’s $4.9 billion in U.S. EBIT last year. 

At Cannes, it is likely the brewer will attempt to shift at least some of the conversation to some of its award-winning work in recent years. That has included a “Contract for Change” effort from FCB New York for Michelob Ultra that earned a Grand Prix last year in the Creative Effectiveness category. The campaign urged U.S. farmers to go organic with the promise to support them financially in the three years necessary to make that transition.

“There are true commitments behind their big efforts,” said a top creative executive who has worked with AB InBev for years (not on Bud Light). “They invest a lot to give back to the people and planet. They don’t do it just for the awards or the fame. When brands play a role in society as they do, they deserve to be Marketer of the Year and a reference to follow for all the other key decision makers who see them from their seats winning on the stage.”

Embracing Cannes

For years, AB InBev did not emphasize Cannes as the company impressed Wall Street with its financial and operational prowess—not stellar marketing—that keyed its rise in the years after its 2008 formation in the wake of InBev’s takeover of U.S.-based Anheuser Busch. But that changed under Miguel Patricio, who held the global chief marketing officer job from 2012 to 2018 before departing to become CEO of Kraft Heinz in 2019, which like AB InBev has ties to Brazilian investment firm 3G Capital. 

With fewer competing brewers to acquire, the company began emphasizing organic growth—and put more emphasis on creativity and marketing to achieve that goal. Moves included forming DraftLine, an in-house digital agency launched in 2018 in Colombia and Mexico that has since expanded to the U.S. and other markets. It also formed award programs and began sending larger contingents to Cannes. Marcondes, who took the global CMO role in early 2022, has continued the Cannes push. 

In an interview last year ahead of Cannes, Marcondes called the Creative Marketer of the Year award a validation “about our culture as a company,” saying it is “meaningful recognition coming from the marketing industry, probably the most important one, so it gives a lot of confidence to the team, and everybody feels great about it.”

That confidence has surely been shaken by the Bud Light backlash, and the brewer’s marketers have avoided the limelight. U.S. CEO Whitworth and Global CEO Michel Doukeris have taken the lead on speaking to media and analysts about the Bud Light situation.

How much that changes next month in Cannes remains to be seen.