Anheuser-Busch Changes Beer Marketing Focus After Transgender Promotion
The beer giant Anheuser-Busch InBev on Thursday said that it would focus its marketing campaigns around sports and music and assign senior executives to oversee them, in the wake of controversy over a Bud Light promotion featuring a transgender influencer.
Anheuser-Busch reported a 13.6 percent increase in first quarter earnings before interest, taxes and other expenses, to $4.7 billion; and a 13.2 percent jump in global revenues to $14.2 billion from a year earlier, mostly because of higher pricing and despite a decline in beer volume in many markets, including North America.
In a call with analysts to discuss the financial results, Anheuser-Busch executives were peppered with questions about the backlash. They repeatedly noted that the promotion was limited to one influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, and one social media post, and that beer cans displaying her image had not been produced for mass distribution.
The company said that senior executives would oversee all marketing campaigns before they are rolled out, and that it would largely focus its advertising and marketing around sports and music. The company noted it was a sponsor of the recent NFL draft and the Stagecoach music festival in California last week.
Source: The New York Times
