Anheuser-Busch has responded after nearly two weeks of backlash over the Bud Light brand’s partnership with a transgender content creator, but excluded any direct mention of the anti-trans issue at the heart of the controversy, reports Bloomberg.
“We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” Chief Executive Officer Brendan Whitworth (above, center) said in a statement issued Friday. “We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”
— Anheuser-Busch (@AnheuserBusch) April 14, 2023
Anheuser-Busch did not immediately respond to a request for further comment. In a previous statement, an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said the company regularly works with different influencers for its marketing needs.
Mulvaney has worked with other brands, including KitchenAid and the skincare brand Ole Henriksen, and riffed on Bud Light’s Super Bowl commercial in February.
Whitworth’s statement on Friday was met with even more pushback on Instagram and other social media platforms. One commenter interpreted the statement as “so many words and yet no actual response.”
Singer Kid Rock previously decried Bud Light’s decision to work with Mulvaney during March Madness, posting a video in which he shot cases of Bud Light with a gun. Florida Senator Marco Rubio highlighted a vintage Bud Light ad created “before corporate America surrendered to the deranged Marxist anti-American mafia.” Other users have called for a boycott of Anheuser-Busch products.
Imara Jones, the chief executive officer of advocacy nonprofit TransLash, cautioned that the statement could further stoke a landscape that is increasingly hostile to transgender people. “Understanding that Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth had good intentions, this statement gives the impression that the company is second-guessing its decision to feature Dylan Mulvaney,” she said.
Anheuser-Busch’s decision to partner with Mulvaney comes amid a spike in anti-trans laws across states in the US. This year alone, at least 11 states have enacted bans or restrictions on gender-affirming health care for transgender kids. Conservative lawmakers at the state level have introduced at least 461 anti-LGBTQ bills in the 2023 legislative session, according to the American Civil Liberties Union — more than the previous five years combined.
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