Running head: Bud Light 1

Bud Light – Module Five Assignment Paper

Rachael Shoff

OGL 260: Arizona State University

06/14/2023
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For the Module Five Assignment Paper I chose to research and write about the recent

uproar about Bud Light. Bud Light is owned by a company known as Anheuser-Busch.

Anheuser- Busch is the world’s largest American brewing company with its main headquarters

located in Missouri (Anheuser-Busch 2023). Anheuser – Busch has many familiar brands that

include, Bud Light, Budweiser, Stella Artois, Michelob Ultra, Hoop Tea, and Cutwater (Busch

family of brands 2023). The odds are if you have been in a bar, you have been exposed to an

Anheuser-Bush product. Prior to 2023 the American classic Bud Light was Anheuser -Busch’s

top selling beer product and known to be America’s top selling beer brew (Valinsky, 2023).

Little did the owners of Bud Light at Anheuser – Busch know that they would take a risk that

would cause not only financial harm but would cause a tarnished name. The business took a

huge risk that left the firm, stakeholders, and company shaking.

We know that prior to the year 2023 that Bud Light owned by Anheuser- Busch was

Americas top selling beer. In April of 2023 Bud Lights owners Anheuser- Busch took a risk that

would devastate them financially and some may say, tarnish the company’s reputation

(Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light beer maker, loses top LGBTQ+ rating over Dylan Mulvaney Ad

Response 2023). Anheuser- Busch made a sponsorship with famous transgender women and

LGBTQ+ icon Dylan Mulvaney. The company created a Bud Light sponsorship with transgender

woman Dylan Mulvaney’s face on the can. This put most Americans into an uproar after viewing

the video of Dylan Mulvaney showing the Bud Light beer can on the social media platform

Instagram. Shortly after American’s viewed this post on Instagram, Bud Lights sales

immediately dropped and continued to drop over the next several weeks. Leaving the company
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to scramble for ideas and ways on how to patch things up with Americans number one selling

beer (Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light beer maker, loses top LGBTQ+ rating over Dylan Mulvaney

Ad Response 2023). Bud Lights sales went on the decline and after four weeks after the

Instagram post Bud Lights sales dropped 24.3% (Griffith, 2023). Bud Light dropped in sales so

much that another beer named Modelo had passed Bud Light in sales. Modelo gained mobility

but Anheuser -Busch also owns the beer product Modelo. Modelo had out did Bud Light in sales

since the company had released the Modelo product (Griffith, 2023).

Now I can imagine that Anheuser- Busch was just trying to show inclusion and diversity

but they were probably not expecting to watch sales drop and begin to slash prices of the Bud

Light product. Celebrities started to lash back with using social media to destroy Bud Light. Kid

Rock was seen shooting several cases of Bud Light and muttering the words “fu#* Bud Light”.

This kept progressing leading to a boycott of the Bud Light brand (Griffith, 2023). In my

opinion this caused a lot of different risk factors within the business. The firm and shareholders

were now both scrambling to correct the damage. Of the four choices of business risks in the

required text of chapter 12, I believe that Bud Light’s move to sponsor Dylan Mulvaney in my

opinion caused Sensitivity to the business cycle (Keown et al., 2020). Anheuser – Busch

immediately attempted to regain its popularity by releasing an infamous Clydesdale commercial,

but America just was not having it the damage had already been done. Total revenue from April

to May continued to drop and sales output dropped alongside. Since the sponsorship with Dylan

shares of Bud Light have dropped 11% (Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light beer maker, loses top

LGBTQ+ rating over Dylan Mulvaney Ad Response 2023).

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In summary I do not believe this will not be the end of Bud Light or Anheuser – Busch

for that matter. I do believe that damage has been done to their reputation and I am unsure if their

total sales and output of Bud Light will go back to how they were. It is shocking to see what one

person can do to a brand. I never thought I would see the day were a beer would be boycotted. If

we have learned anything from the prohibition it is that American’s will never give up drinking. I

think Anheuser – Busch and Bud Light will make a comeback.

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References

Fickenscher, L. (2023, May 31). Bud Light Risks Losing No. 1 status in us as Sales Plunge
25.7% in latest week. New York Post. https://nypost.com/2023/05/30/bud-light-sales-
plunge-25-7-modelo-closes-beer-gap/

Griffith, K. (2023, June 2). Bud Light Risks losing its title as the top-selling us beer to Modelo.
Daily Mail Online. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12144105/Bud-Light-risks-
losing-title-selling-beer-Modelo.html

Keown, A. J., Martin, J. D., & Petty, J. W. (2020). Foundations of Finance: The Logic and
practice of Financial Management. Pearson Education.

Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light beer maker, loses top LGBTQ+ rating over Dylan Mulvaney Ad
Response. ABC7 Chicago. (2023, May 19). https://abc7chicago.com/anheuser-busch-bud-
light-news-sales-beer/13270810/

Valinsky, J. (2023a, June 14). Bud Light loses its title as America’s top-selling beer | CNN
business. CNN. https://www.cnn.com/2023/06/14/business/bud-light-modelo-top-selling-
may-sales/index.html#:~:text=If%20there’s%20a%20bright%20spot,period%20compared
%20to%20previous%20weeks.

Wikimedia Foundation. (2023, June 14). Anheuser-Busch. Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anheuser-Busch

Busch family of brands. Anheuser. (2023, June 14). https://www.anheuser-busch.com/brands