Anheuser-Busch Inbev said Tuesday that revenue growth in most of its global regions was offset by a drop in North American sales, in a sign of continuing fallout from a promotion with a transgender influencer that cost it sales.
The world’s largest brewer and parent company of Bud Light said adjusted earnings for the latest quarter rose 4.1% to $5.4 billion on revenues that climbed 5% to $15.6 billion.
Revenue in the United States for the July-September period, however, tumbled 13.5%. AB InBev, based in Leuven, Belgium, noted that sales to retailers were down “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light.”
Bud Light sales plunged amid a conservative backlash after the brand sent a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in early April.
They sent a 6 pack of special cans to one person. They didn’t market they were doing it. They didn’t sell them. They didn’t do an entire canning run of the special cans for some event. They did almost the bare minimum. And your response is they should have “stuck to small token gestures.” If giving a 6 pack of cheap beers to one person isn’t a token gesture, I don’t know what is.