The boycott of Anheuser-Busch's (BUD) once-dominant Bud Light beer brand appears to be having a serious impact.
Sales of the beer have been in decline since the company partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a social media campaign.
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For five straight weeks, sales of Bud Light have plummeted more than 20% in each of them.
In the week ending April 22, Bud Light sales dropped 21.4%. For the next four weeks, sales fell 23.4%, 23.6%, 24.6% and 24.4% respectively.
Now the data is in for the week ending June 10. It is a new record low during the losing streak.
For that week, Bud Light sales were down 26.8%, according to a chart published by the Daily Mail and attributed to NielsenIQ.
Constellation Brands' (STZ) beer Modelo Especial, in fact, has now taken over as the best-selling beer in the U.S.
Bud Light's former market share at the beginning of the year was 10.3%. It was reported as down to 7.3% on June 14. Modelo's clocked in at 8.4%
Investors are beginning to look ahead to Anheuser- Busch's next earnings report, to be released before the market opens on Aug. 3.
In its first-quarter earnings call on May 4, CEO Michel Doukeris addressed the controversy and its impact on the company's business, which, at the time, was only beginning to be felt.
"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. "With this perspective, and in the context of our global business, we believe we have the experience, the resources, and the partners to manage this."
"We will continue to learn with the moment and come out stronger," Doukeris continued. "And we'll work tireless to do what we do best: bring people together over a beer and creating a future of more cheers."
Regarding the marketing campaign with Mulvaney, he seemed to attempt to minimize its importance to Anheuser-Busch's overall advertising efforts.
"This was the result of one camp, he said. "It was not made for production or sales to the general public. It was one post, not a formal campaign or advertisement."
He added some more words about his vision for the company and its business success.
Bud Light campaign is easy to drink, easy to enjoy. We should address the situation through the lens of three areas that are very important: Our people; our consumers; and beer. Let's start with our people. This situation has impacted our people and especially our frontline workers: The delivery drivers; sales representatives; our wholesalers; Bud owners; and servers.
These people are the fabric of our business. They are our neighbors, family members, and friends. They are in every community in America. We've been doing everything we can to support our teams and ensure that safety while continuing to brew, package, and together for wholesalers deliver great beer to the market.
We are providing direct financial support to the frontline teams that work for us and our wholesalers. As to Bud Light, we have significantly increased our investments behind the brands in the U.S., including tripling our medium spend over the summer. Now let's talk about our consumers. We continue to be committed to the programs and partnerships that we have forged over decades with our consumers and with organizations that represent a wide range of communities where we operate.
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