TheQuartering [5/2/2023]
A staggering sales hit for Bud Light is worsening with each passing week following an ill-fated marketing tie-up with transgender social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney — with the latest weekly figures showing a 21% drop.
During the week ended April 22 — the most recent industry data available — Bud Light sales plunged 21% vs. a year ago, accelerating from a 17% slide a week earlier and an initial weekly drop of 6% when the controversy kicked off during the first week of April, according to Nielsen IQ and Bump Williams Consulting.
Meanwhile, beer volumes — the number of cases sold, whether in packs of 12, 18 or 24 cans — dropped an even steeper 26% last week, versus a 21% drop a week earlier and an initial drop of 11%, according to the data.
That’s an indication that Bud Light’s core customers — who typically buy their beer in bulk — are ditching the brand, beverage expert Bump Williams said in a Tuesday interview.
“Larger packages of Bud Light are not being purchased — the 30-pack suitcases, the 20-packs, the 18-packs, the 12-packs — they’re all being impacted,” Williams told The Post. “It’s going to be very, very hard to reverse the decline.”
Bud Light remains the bestselling beer in the US, with sales last year topping $4.8 billion. By comparison, the No. 2 brand, Modelo Especial, sold $3.75 billion while Michelob Ultra generated $3.3 billion in sales, according to Williams’ Connecticut-based research firm.
Nevertheless, the precipitous sales drops of the past few weeks have left its sales year to date down a painful 8%, threatening Bud Light’s leading position, the latest sales data show. Unless parent Anheuser-Busch turns things around, “then Bud Light is in serious trouble this year,” according to Williams.
“I think it runs the risk of losing that No. 1 position at the end of calendar year 2023 to Modelo Especial,” Williams said.
The Post has sought comment from Anheuser-Busch.
Earlier this month, Mulvaney began posting images and videos of herself on social media pitching Bud Light — prompting anger and calls for a boycott.