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(Dylan Mulvaney/Instagram)
These are polarizing times and Bud Light remains in a tailspin following its brief, but ultimately costly, 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.
By the end of April Alissa Heinerscheid, the senior marketing executive behind the controversial Dylan Mulvaney ad campaign, had taken a “leave of absence” which it appears she will never return from.
A day before Mulvaney announced the beer partnership, Heinerscheid discussed her work with Bud Light on the Make Yourself At Home podcast where she explained her mission to move the brand beyond its “fratty” and “out of touch” image to a beer company that embraces inclusivity.
Bud Light VP Alissa Heinerscheid: Courtesy Anheuser-Busch)
“I’m a businesswoman, I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light,” Heinerscheid said. “This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand there will be no future for Bud Light. ‘”
And no doubt those comments helped seal Heinerscheid’s fate…
But there was yet another ad company involved in the Bud Light Trans fiasco.
San Mateo-based Captiv8, is a California marketing firm that specializes in “high-performing influencer marketing campaigns.” It was Captiv8 that brought the concept to Heinerscheid and had, up until now, been spared the consequences of what may have been the worst marketing idea this side of New Coke.
But now the New York Post is reporting that heads are now rolling at that boutique influencer marketing firm responsible for the Dylan Mulvaney connection with Bud Light.
Captiv8, which had already been criticized for firing 13 staffers after top execs returned for a lavish business trip to the French Riviera, axed 30 employees, roughly 20% of its workforce in the latest round of layoffs.
Whether Captiv8’s September 28 top executive shakeup was a direct result of the Mulvaney fiasco, which led to Bud Light losing its two-decade status as the nation’s top-selling beer remains a question…
But one has to ask “How could it not?”
“I’m guessing that Dylan Mulvaney contributed,” one laid-off executive told The Post. “They weren’t laying people off before [April 1],”
“Bud Light still just stubbornly down around 30% in volume compared to last year,” Beer Business Daily publisher Harry Schuhmacher told Fox News Digital Friday. “That tells me that this is quasi-permanent, meaning those consumers are just lost forever.”
“We’ve never seen anything like this in the beer industry,” Schuhmacher added
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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
