The brewing company, Anheuser-Busch InBev, said Thursday that its U.S. revenue fell 10.5% in the second quarter after Bud Light thought it would be a good idea to feature a man who pretends to be a pre-teen girl in a promotion.
But Jon Schweppe of the American Principles Project is one of the countless conservatives who thought it was a terrible marketing move and encouraged beer drinkers to purchase other brands. He says the second quarter figures show the "power of the conservative boycott."
"Bud Light is a brand that largely caters to conservatives. Most highfalutin city-dwelling liberals don't really drink Bud Light," he points out. "They drink IPAs; they drink some craft beers — that sort of thing — and it's really affected them."
InBev CEO Michel Doukeris downplayed the concerns on Thursday and pointed to internal polling that shows 80% of U.S. consumers remain favorable or neutral toward the brand.
"If InBev still believes that internally, that company is in a terrible great lot of trouble," says Scott Shepard of the National Center for Public Policy Research's Free Enterprise Project.
"It has absolutely screwed up," he continues. "It screwed up in the non-apologies. It screwed up in its response in every conceivable way. They need to clean house."
That, he says, includes the people who signed off on sending the commemorative Bud Light can to Dylan Mulvaney, who posted it to his millions of social media followers.
"They need to get their advertisers back to St. Louis, out of New York City," Shepard further suggests. "That was a terrible mistake for that company to make. If they still, at this point, have not learned a lesson, then that company is in terrible, terrible trouble."
Schweppe adds that the problem is the company is ignoring the importance of that 20%.
"The problem is that the people they upset the most happen to be their main customers, and I think it's going to be devastating for the Bud Light brand long-term," he concludes.
