ST. LOUIS — After a 22-year reign as the bestselling beer in America, Bud Light slipped to No. 2 in the month of May.
The drop in sales was part of the fallout after the Anheuser-Busch InBev brand partnered with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in April. People who were offended by the brand marketing the beer with a transgender person began an informal boycott.
The brand took further heat when its vice president of marketing, Alissa Gordon Heinerscheid, attempted to explain the move by saying, "Bud Light has been kind of a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor" that she hoped to change by reaching out to Mulvaney.
Also contributing to Bud Light's slide has been a rapid increase in popularity of Modelo Especial beer, which overtook Bud Light in May. Modelo Especial's sales have been rising for months, but have increased particularly since the Bud Light controversy began.
Modelo Especial surpassed Bud Light in May in terms of dollars, not volume of beer sold, he said.
"What sometimes does get lost is the fact that, year-to-date, Bud Light is still the No. 1 ranked beer in America on all fronts. Bud Light still has the edge when it comes to sheer volume sales year-to-date and the month of May," said Dave Williams, vice president of analytics and insight at Bump Williams Consulting, which analyzes the alcoholic beverage industry.
Since the controversy began, Bud Light sales have been down from about 25% to about 30% each week compared with the same week the year before, Williams said. Modelo Especial sales have been up around 9% for each week of the year.
If the trend continues, Modelo will replace Bud Light as the top selling beer in America by the year's end, he said.
In some cities including Chicago, LGBTQ groups have called for a counter-protest against Anheuser-Busch products, arguing that the company's CEO, Michel Doukeris, offered only weak support of Mulvaney. In an earnings call to investors, Doukeris twice said that a can of Bud Light with Mulvaney's face on it, which was given to Mulvaney in honor of 365 days of girlhood, "is not a formal campaign or advertisement."
Jerry Dallape, owner of Dean's Liquor in Collinsville, said he saw no difference in Bud Light sales for the first couple of weeks of the controversy. But for the last few weeks, the drop in Bud Light sales has been notable.
"This past week we had the (International) Horseradish Festival and we saw probably a quarter of the sales we usually do," he said. The festival was held June 2 and 3 in Collinsville.
With inventory left over from the festival, he said he ordered only about half the amount of Bud Light last week that he usually does. Meanwhile, Mexican beers such as Modelo and Corona are selling particularly well.
And so are other Anheuser-Busch products.
"Bud Select is still selling. Budweiser is selling about the same as it did. But Bud Light isn't selling, and I know why. You'd think people wouldn't buy the other products, but they do. It's funny to me," he said.
Modelo Especial is brewed and distributed in the United States by Constellation Brands. In the rest of the world, it is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev.
According to published reports, grocery, convenience store and liquor store sales of Bud Light fell 23% to $297.3 million in May, or 7.3% of all beer sales in those stores. Modelo Especial sales in those locations jumped 15% to $333.1 million for the month, totaling 8.4% of U.S. retail beer sales for the month.
Anheuser-Busch stock closed at $56.67 Wednesday, up 1.89%. The stock has dropped 15% since partnering with Mulvaney on April 1.
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