Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris weighed in on the controversy around Bud Light’s Dylan Mulvaney promotion Thursday on an earnings call, saying it was “not a formal campaign.”
Anheuser-Busch products will no longer be served at some gay bars in Chicago in light of the beer giant’s distancing from transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
2Bears Tavern Group, which owns four gay bars in the Windy City, called out Anheuser-Busch InBev’s “abandonment of its support” of Dylan Mulvaney on Thursday.
The organization will no longer serve Anheuser-Busch beverages at their bars, which includes Bud Light, Goose Island 312 and Busch Light.
Anheuser-Busch had partnered with Mulvaney in March, sending her a personalized pack of beer as part of an ad for March Madness and Mulvaney’s first-year anniversary of her gender transition.
PROGRESSIVE LGBT GROUP PRESSURES BUD LIGHT TO RENEW TRANSGENDER SUPPORT AMID DYLAN MULVANEY FALLOUT
2Bears Tavern Group, which owns four gay bars in the Windy City, called out Anheuser-Busch InBev’s “abandonment of its support” of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. (Google Maps / Google Maps)
The marketing move led to Anheuser-Busch losing roughly $5 billion in market value and significant boycotts from conservative drinkers.
AB InBev CEO Michel Doukeris had downplayed his company’s partnership with Mulvaney to investors on Thursday, pointing to misinformation spread on social media.
“We need to clarify the facts that this was one can, one influencer, one post and not a campaign,” Doukeris explained during an earnings call.
Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth put out a statement in April about the controversy, saying that his company “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.”
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Bud Light has faced intense backlash from longtime customers over recent campaign with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney. (Instagram/Fox News / Fox News)
2Bears Tavern Group called Whitworth’s remarks “reprehensible and divisive,” along with Anheuser-Busch’s move to put two executives involved in the campaign on leave.
“Anheuser-Busch’s decision to drop its support of Mulvaney in response to ignorant and hateful objections by some of its customers shows how little Anheuser-Busch cares about the LGBTQIA+ community, and in particular transgender people, who have been under unrelenting attack in this country,” the statement read.
“CEO Brendan Whitworth’s excuse that Anheuser-Busch ‘never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people’ was tantamount to saying that the rights and safety of transgender people are topics worthy of debate,” the statement added.
Signage of Bud light outside a bar in New York City. (Roberto Machado Noa/LightRocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
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Anheuser-Busch told Fox News Digital that they have supported the LGBTQ+ community in the past and will continue to do so.
“We remain committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations to drive economic prosperity across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community,” the spokesperson said.
Fox Business’ Chris Pandolfo contributed to this report.
