Dylan Mulvaney has broken her silence on Bud Light to slam the embattled beer brand for for not standing by her amid the fallout from their disastrous campaign.
The 26-year-old on Instagram addressed the debacle, which has seen Anheuser-Busch lose $20million in market cap value since the advert for March Madness.
Speaking to her 1.8million followers, she said: ‘I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did. I’ve been scared to leave my house.’For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse than not hiring a trans person at all.
‘Because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and as hateful as they want. There’s should be nothing controversial or divisive about working with us.
‘I have been ridiculed in public I’ve been followed and I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.’ It is the first time that Mulvaney has publicly spoken about Bud Light, calling them a company that she ‘loved’ in the new post.
During the video she said that trans and queer people are ‘customers too’, before adding that ‘turning a blind eye’ isn’t an option.
She previously said she didn’t want to give her critics the ‘satisfaction’ of talking about them, but has now opened up about how the backlash affected her – as sales for the beer dropped a staggering 28.5 percent.
The influencer admitted to hiding the can – which sparked Kid Rock to shoot at several cases of the beer – and is no longer able find it.
Mulvaney said: ‘I realized that I needed to protect this can so I hid it somewhere and I can’t find it because I hid it so well.
‘But when I do find it, I feel like it needs to go in a museum, preferably behind bullet-proof glass.
‘One thing I will not tolerate people saying about me is that I don’t like beer because I love beer and I always have.’
She also explained that Bud Light approached her for the sponsored video, which is something that the company denied, claiming it was an external agency on their behalf. Her comments come after the US CEO of Anheuser-Busch was slammed for failing to answer questions over the backlash on Wednesday.
Brendan Whitworth refused to rule out partnering Mulvaney and avoided answering how much the marketing blunder had cost Bud Light.
Speaking to CBS Mornings, Whitworth was asked if he would send Mulvaney another can, knowing the backlash that it sparked.
But instead of giving a definitive answer, the CEO instead launched into a pre-rehearsed speech about the ‘social conversation’ that the disaster campaign caused
Whitworth added that they ‘need to deeply understand the consumer’ and ‘appreciate’ what they want’ from the brand, as he was blasted on social media for doing a ‘dismal job’.
He was then challenged over his refusal to answer, with Tony Dokoupil asking if the decision was a mistake – but again avoided the question. The beer brand saw its sales drop 28.5 percent in the week ending June 17 – one of the worst weeks since the campaign aired in April.
It’s a deeper drop from the week ending on June 10, which saw a 26.8 percent drop, according to Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ.
The new low beats the previous worst – an almost 26 percent drop- for the week ending May 25.
It comes after claims that two Bud Light marketing executives had finally been fired over the fiasco – something which the company deny.
VP of marketing Alissa Heinerscheid, 39, and VP for Mainstream Brands Daniel Blake, 34, both took a voluntary leave of absence following the backlash.
But sources told the Daily Caller that both had been official fired following the announcement that they would be stepping back in April.
When approached by DailyMail.com earlier this month, a friend of Heinerscheid’s said ‘she’s not supposed to talk about it, she can’t.’
In a statement to DailyMail.com, a spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch said they were still both on a ‘leave of absence.’
Speaking just days before the controversy, Heinerscheid said she planned to update the ‘fratty’ and ‘out of touch’ branding.
Heinerscheid’s job was taken over by Todd Allen, who recently served as global vice president of Budweiser.
The marketing decision appears to be one of the worst in American history to come from an advertising backlash.
Sources told the Daily Caller that executives only claimed they were on a ‘leave of absence’ to avoid a lawsuit.
They said: ‘To my understanding, if we publicly announced the word ‘fire’ it opens up the potential for them to sue us. That’s why we said leave of absence.
‘The wholesalers would have had an absolute HAY DAY with leadership if they didn’t remove [Heinerscheid].’
‘Wholesalers were told they are both gone for good by leadership during in-person conversations,’ the source claimed. ‘They already shifted all their direct reports to new people and the head of marketing.
He added that he thought Blake was ‘actually awesome.’ ‘I think he was just caught in [the] cross fire,’ the source said. ‘But also he did hire her… so that’s a fault.’
In another blow to the brand Modelo Especial dethroned Bud Light as the top-selling beer in America after 22 years of the longtime industry leader holding the top spot.
Modelo surpassed Bud Light’s $297 million – which was a 22.8 percent fall in sales compared to the same time last year.
It is the first time since 2001 that Bud Light has not been in the top spot, dethroning its sister brand Budweiser for the ‘King of Beer’ title in 2001.
US sales of Modelo are controlled by rival Constellation Brands and do not count as part of AB InBev’s global volumes as part of an anti-trust settlement.
Leave a Reply