Anheuser-Busch unveils new ad campaign as Bud Light sales continue to crater

Anheuser-Busch releases a new ad campaign as Bud Light sales continue to fall after the boycott the company faced for partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Yahoo Finance Reporter Brooke DiPalma breaks down Anheuser-Busch’s sales and stock movement.

Video Transcript

RACHELLE AKUFFO: All right. Taking a look at sales of Bud Light. They continue to take a hit for the 11th week in a row. Now, its parent company Anheuser-Busch is out with a new marketing campaign. Brooke DiPalma is here with the details.

So Brooke, break down for us what impact we’re seeing on the company now.

BROOKE DIPALMA: Good morning, Rachelle. This is the third straight month of declines following that partnership with trans influencer and TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney. Of course, US CEO Brendan Whitworth continuing to emphasize that it was one can and one gift. But the week ending June 17 sales of Bud Light declined 28.5%.

According to recent data, that’s an acceleration from the week before of down 26.8%. We also know that Bud Light recently lost the top spot in the US beer market to Constellation Brands. It’s also feeling the impact across its portfolio. During that week ending June 17, Bud Light volumes down 31.1%.

Michelob Ultra, Busch Light, as well as Budweiser volumes also down. Of course, those are all under the Anheuser-Busch umbrella. But Evercore ISI saying in a note that this continued weakness begs the question of whether Anheuser-Busch or its distributors will have to make structural changes to reduce their cost basis, if these trends don’t improve over the next few months that is.

As you can see here, shares of Anheuser-Busch down over the last three months. Since they started back in April, it’s down more than 15%. But its competitor is Molson Coors, as well as Constellation Brands, once again, that’s behind Modelo, who now has the top spot, are up both higher over the last three months.

We know that Constellation Brands is set to report its earnings this Friday. And so certainly, we’ll be tuning in to see if this is mentioned in the call.

Story continues

RACHELLE AKUFFO: And Brooke, in terms of next moves, now, the company trying to move forward from this sales decline with a new ad campaign. So break down what that does.

BROOKE DIPALMA: Well, that’s right. The company is out with a new ad campaign. And we know that the company is investing heavily to get this story back on track. This ad you see right here is part of a larger campaign called That’s Who We Are. This first ad in particular is called We Make The Beer. It includes a 30-second and 60-second spot that sets a debut in local markets. And it features 140 Anheuser-Busch employees, growers, wholesalers, as well as partners.

Of course, Rachelle, those are the ones that have felt the brunt of this sales impact directly. We know that many of those people on the front line have received harassment, have received threats following this boycott, following that Instagram post. And so now, the company is heavily investing in those frontline employees as well as providing financial support to wholesale retailers. But they’re not alone in this culture wars. As you can see right here, other companies have gone and swept in, including Target, Starbucks, as well as Disney. And so this is just one of the first moves as Anheuser-Busch looks to get this story back on track, looks to get control of this sales decline.

And, ultimately, we’ll see where it goes from here, as it looks to move forward as a beer company.

RACHELLE AKUFFO: Indeed. We’ll be keeping a track of that. Thank you for that update. Brooke DiPalma there for us. Thanks so much.