WASHINGTON (TND) — Anheuser-Busch, the parent company of Bud Light, has reportedly suffered a recent loss of value after backlash over its partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney went viral, leading to calls for boycotts of the brand.
The total value of Anheuser-Busch’s shares, which is called its “market capitalization,” has been on the rise since mid-March, according to Newsweek. But since the backlash over Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney, that value has dropped from being more than $134 billion to closer to $130 billion, a loss of almost $4 billion.
Anheuser-Busch’s stock price climbed from $60.42 on March 20 to a peak of $66.73 on March 31 before slowly falling to its current price of $64.28 midday on April 12, according to MarketWatch.com. Mulvaney’s social media video featuring her Bud Light partnership was posted to Instagram on April 2.
InvestorPlace financial markets reporter Samuel O’Brient wrote on Monday that while Anheuser-Busch’s stock price was down, “anti-woke backlash won’t keep this industry leader down for long”
Newsweek also explained that the drop in stock value may just be a result of the normal fluctuation of the stock market, and the peak in March could be attributed to the company posting revenue growth.
Mulvaney’s partnership with Bud Light consisted of the social media personality sharing with her nearly 2 million followers that the beer company was celebrating her first anniversary of transitioning by creating a beer can with her face on it. It was apparently part of Bud Light’s larger Pride campaign “celebrat[ing] everyone’s identity.”
The transgender activist/social media personality also shared a few other social media posts that featured her promoting Bud Light. One was for March Madness and another featured her soaking in a bathtub while drinking the beer.
Conservative outrage towards the partnership was fierce. Country music star and rapper Kid Rock shared his own video on Instagram of him shooting multiple cases of Bud Light, which he called a “clear and concise” response to the partnership.
Country singer Travis Tritt also announced he would be removing all Anheuser-Busch products from his upcoming tour in apparent outrage over the brand’s partnership with Mulvaney. Fellow country singer John Rich, of the duo “Big & Rich,” claimed that no patrons of his downtown Nashville bar would be able to purchase Bud Light anymore.
Following the outcry, Anheuser-Busch defended the partnership with Mulvaney as one of the many ways the beer company attempts to “authentically connect” with “various demographics” of potential customers.
Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics,” a spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch told Fox News. “From time to time we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public.
It was also revealed that Bud Light Vice President of Marketing Alissa Heinerscheid was attempting to move away from what she called the brand’s “kind of… fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor” by “shifting the tone” towards “inclusivity.”
It means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive and feels lighter, and brighter, and different, and appeals to women and to men,” Heinerscheid during a recent episode of the “Make Yourself at Home” podcast. “And representation is sort of at the heart of evolution — you got to see people who reflect you in the work.”