Beer sales plunge to lowest levels in 24 years — thanks to Bud Light’s disastrous Dylan Mulvaney campaign
By Lisa Fickenscher
By Lisa FickenscherPublished Dec. 27, 2023, 3:17 p.m. ET
Beer sales in the US are expected to plunge to their lowest level since 1999 — largely due to Bud Light’s massive falloff after its disastrous tie-up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, industry experts said.
Sales declined by more than 5% in the first nine months of the year, dragged down not only by the backlash and boycotts against Anheuser-Busch-owned Bud Light but the changing habits of younger drinkers, according to Beer Marketer’s Insights.
Bud Light sales have steadily declined each month by 25% to 30% since Mulvaney’s now-infamous posts touting the brand on April 1, according to industry data.
The Mulvaney fiasco unseated Bud Light as the No. 1- selling beer in the US after two decades of dominance.
While other beers grabbed some of Bud Light’s market share — with Constellation Brands’ Modelo unseating Bud Light and Molson Coors’ brands Coors Light and Miller Lite seeing upticks — their growth did not make up for Anheuser-Busch’s declines.
“This year in particular AB is driving the decline in the industry,” David Steinman, vice president and executive editor of the publication, told The Post.
Young people prefer spirits over beer, industry data shows. Getty Images
Anheuser-Busch-owned brands, which include Budweiser, Michelob Ultra and Busch, have also been hurt by the boycottsand represent 35% of all beer shipments to wholesalers in the US. Meanwhile, Molson Coors’ and Constellations’ growth accounted for just 30% of Anheuser-Busch’s losses, according to Steinman.
Bud Light’s woes show little sign of abating despite a renewed marketing push targeting its traditional male audience — including a recent commercial featuring NFL legends Peyton Manning and Emmitt Smith.
For the four weeks ended Dec. 9, Bud Light’s retail store sales were down 28% compared with the same period a year ago, according to a Wall Street Journal report,citing data from NielsenIQ and Bump Williams Consulting.
Overall beer sales have also been hit as millennials and Gen-Zers ditch the brews for other alcohol-infused products like canned cocktails or simply drink less than previous generations.
Bud Light sales are down 28% for the four-week period ended Dec. 9 compared to a year ago. AP
Sales of craft beer, which emerged as a huge growth engine in the late ’90s, have also been down for three of the past four years, according to Steinman.
“This is an industry-wide, five-alarm fire,” Craig Purser, president of the National Beer Wholesalers Association, said in a speech to wholesalers at a convention in October, according to the Wall Street Journal report.
However, a Molson Coors spokesman said concerns about the beer industry are overblown.
“It’s not so much a beer problem as it is a Bud Light problem,” the rep told the Journal.
