Anheuser-Busch Chief Executive Michel Doukeris has been in damage-control mode since the company decided to partner with the transgender social-media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. That deal -- which was not a major promotion -- blew up in the company's face, leading to boycotts of its products.
Bud Light, a brand led at the time by Vice President Alissa Heinerscheid, sent Mulvaney cans of the beer with her face on them to celebrate her first year living as a woman. That was a calculated business arrangement for the transgender influencer to promote the beer -- which was then the top-selling brand in the world -- to her followers.
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It was part of Heinerscheid's efforts to expand the brand's customer base beyond what she called its "fratty" core audience.
Those comments met a backlash of their own, but they likely would have flown largely under the radar had the singer-songwriter Kid Rock not decided to violently object to the Mulvaney partnership by shooting up cases of Bud Light in a social media post.
That post from the rock star put everything about Bud Light, its leadership, and its promotional-partner choices under the spotlight. Fans of the beer boycotted not just Bud Light but other Budweiser products. Doukeris has played down the impact of those boycotts
"The Bud Light volume decline in the U.S. over the first three weeks of April, as publicly reported, would represent around 1% of our overall global volumes for that period," he said during his company's first-quarter-earnings call.
As CEO, Doukeris has to address the issue, but his comments seem likely to just make both sides angry.
Image source: Anheuser Busch
Anheuser-Busch CEO Tries to Play Both Sides
In a world where right-wing leaders like former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have made "diversity" a dirty word, Doukeris finds himself in an impossible position. Many of Bud Light's longtime fans want the company (and specifically its CEO) to apologize for the Mulvaney promotion.
If Doukeris did that, he likely would not fix the damage done to the Bud Light brand because he would be accused of giving in to public pressure. He'd also be condemning Mulvaney and essentially burning any hopes Anheuser-Busch has of ever being seen as an inclusive brand.
That's not just alienating the LGBTQ+ community -- Anheuser-Busch has done that by not supporting Mulvaney -- he would make the company toxic to anyone who believes in diversity and inclusion. Instead of saying the bare minimum, however, Doukeris has tried to minimize the Mulvaney promotion.
"This was the result of one can. It was not made for production or sale to the general public. It was one post, not a formal campaign or advertisement," he said.
Anheuser-Busch CEO Wants Out of the Conversation
Doukeris has basically admitted that the mistake his company made was doing something that made its product political. Past ads for Budweiser products generally leaned on Americana, sports, and the "fratty" humor that Heinerscheid wanted to get away from.
The CEO addressed the issue and what he thinks happened.
"So I think that to start, we need to understand the current environment and especially the social media landscape and how consumer brands, especially big brands with significant reach, can be pulled into a discussion like this one," he said. "And we know that ours, Bud Light, is certainly not the first brand that was pulled into a situation like that."
Doukeris mostly seems to regret that the company opened up Bud Light to be part of a political discussion.
"While beer will always be at the table when important topics are debated, the beer itself should not be the focus of the debate. And to me, this is the key learning," he added.
The CEO then went on to try to tell his angry customers that they're wrong to be mad. That's not likely to pacify people on either side of the discussion.
"One challenge is what you call the misinformation and confusion that still exists. We will need to continue to clarify the fact that this was one can, one influencer, one post, and not a campaign and repeat this message for some time," he said.
People who agree with Kid Rock are not likely to care that the promotion with Mulvaney was small, while the influencer's fans are not going to like Doukeris playing down the promotion. But the CEO does seem to know that all his company can really do is keep moving forward.
"We are more focused on leveraging our global experience and mobilizing our global resources to support the U.S. team as we move forward," he added.
"We have adjusted and streamlined our marketing structure, so the most senior market peers are more closely connected to every aspect of our brands."
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