Anheuser-Busch Inbev said Tuesday that revenue growth in most of its global regions was offset by a drop in North American sales, in a sign of continuing fallout from a promotion with a transgender influencer that cost it sales.
The world’s largest brewer and parent company of Bud Light said adjusted earnings for the latest quarter rose 4.1% to $5.4 billion on revenues that climbed 5% to $15.6 billion.
Revenue in the United States for the July-September period, however, tumbled 13.5%. AB InBev, based in Leuven, Belgium, noted that sales to retailers were down “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light.”
Bud Light sales plunged amid a conservative backlash after the brand sent a commemorative can to transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in early April.
ITT: “Bud Light is bad”
So are all of the top-selling beers in the world, and especially in America (which is the subject of this article).
We get it. You’re into craft beer that costs $20/pint. I like them on occasion myself. But when I want to get drunk on beer cheaply, I’m not going to my local brewery. I’m not even going to Great Lakes or Same Adams. I’m going for a cheap, light, mass-produced pilsner. PBR, Coors, Miller Lite, Bud Light, Youngling, etc. They’re all the same cheap swill.
It’s the same with everything. The average person who isn’t an enthusiast consumes tons of mediocre junk. Taylor Swift is probably a good analog for music: I don’t see a lot of academic musicians analyzing the new music theory she’s implementing, or literary analysts dissecting her lyrics. Marvel Movies are getting famous for being pretty much the same heroes journey with rushed CGI every 6 months or so. Tons of people still watch shows like Friends, the Office, and Seinfeld. McDonald still sells billions of burgers in spite of the existence of high-end restaurants.
And that’s okay. Not everything. You consume needs to be some ultra-expensive artisanal elitist product.
As for Bud Light in particular, this is a a great example of a bad PR team. Either stick to your guns or don’t enter the fight in the first place. The fact that they’ve backed down and caved to transphobes means they’re much lower on my list now.
But if you’re trying to get drunk as fast as you can for as cheap as possible without any regard for taste, there are are products out there that have higher alcohol content and cost less than all of those products you named. Wouldn’t that be a more efficient means to an end?
Craft beer is 20$ in the US? Wtf?
No. I mean, yeah, some beer somewhere is probably $20/pt. But most of the ones I see at the store are like $12-14 for a four-pack.
I can pick up a really decent locally made ale/stout/ipa/whatever for like $15 per six-pack, I’m sure I could spend more but that’s the beer I prefer.
$20/pt would have to be a nicer restaurant or (more likely) a concert venue or sports stadium, skies the limit there lol.
I had similar problems with Target when they just immediately decided to just cave