American Craft Beer The Best Craft Beer, Breweries, Bars, Brewpubs, Beer Stores, And Restaurants Serving Serious Beer.
(Dylan Mulvaney/Instagram)
It was inevitable in light of the fallout from the Bud Light Trans controversy, heads had to roll, so when Alissa Heinerscheid, the senior marketing executive behind the controversial Dylan Mulvaney ad campaign took a “leave of absence” nobody was surprised.
And now Anson Frericks, the former President of Anheuser Busch Sales & Distribution, has written an opinion piece for The Daily Mail calling for Anheuser-Busch’s current CEO Brendan Whitworth’s departure.
(Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth)
Bud Light is continuing to face a backlash following its partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer whose image was put on a Bud Light beer can to celebrate “365 Days of Girlhood.”
The initial Dylan Mulvaney announcement took place on April 1 (ironically April Fool’s Day) and in spite of Anheuser-Busch’s desperate efforts to put the matter to bed the brand has been experiencing serious sales declines ever since then.
On April 14th, almost two weeks after Dylan Mulvaney’s Instagram post, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth released a formal statement (without specifically addressing its partnership with the trans activist) that failed to put the matter to rest.
On June 28th, Whitworth tried again, making an appearance on CBS Morning News where he was twice asked by hosts if he would send the can to Mulvaney again or if it had been a ‘mistake’.
Frericks called his answers “clearly rehearsed and evasive.”
Frericks, who to be fair is now a co-founder of Strive Asset Management, thinks the reason Whitworth deflected is due to large asset managers like Vanguard, BlackRock and State Street who are forcing corporate America to embrace what he calls ‘stakeholder’ capitalism, with ‘diversity and inclusion’ goals that serve activists, politicians, non-governmental organizations.
This from Frericks’ July 1 opinion piece…
I worked with Whitworth for many years at Anheuser-Busch. He personally promoted me twice and eventually made me President of Anheuser Busch Sales & Distribution Co in 2021.
We had a good relationship – and I left on my own terms to co-found an asset management company last year.
So I write this with a heavy heart, not out of spite but because it’s important for Americans to understand how and why corporate leaders can bungle the management of once-iconic American brands so badly, sacrificing countless jobs and invested assets in the process.
Whitworth has clearly shown himself to be incapable of solving the Mulvaney crisis.
He’s had multiple chances and he’s failed.
It’s time he did the right thing and stepped aside to make way for someone capable of righting the sinking Bud Light ship.
Anheuser-Busch InBev has lost $27 billion in market value in the wake of its partnership with Dylan Mulvaney.
###
Want more on the Bud Light Trans controversy?
BUD LIGHT BEER PRONOUNCED “SICK” GOING INTO MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY
ANHEUSER-BUSCH LOSES PERFECT LGBTQ+ RATING FROM HUMAN RIGHTS GROUP
ANHEUSER-BUSCH STOCK DOWNGRADED AS BUD LIGHT TRANS CRISIS CONTINUES
