…the answer is an emphatic no.
The latest (week of July 1) data are in, and Bud Light sales are down 28.5% versus the same week last year – virtually the same as for the last four week period which was down 28.0% – with, obviously, no indication that a turnaround is in sight.
And even worse for Bud Light parent company Anheuser-Busch, sales for several of their other major brands, though not as steeply as Bud Light, are tanking as well.
From James Lynch’s article at dailycaller.com:
Other Anheuser-Busch brands such as Budweiser saw a 12.1% drop in sales and Stella Artois suffered a 9.5% drop in sales in the week ending July 1, the industry data states. At the same time, sales of rival beer brands Miller Lite and Coors Light went up by 14.3% and 17.8% at the end of June.
Top competitor Modelo Especial had an 11.4% increase in sales over the same time period. Modelo recently surpassed Bud Light as America’s top-selling beer because of the Bud Light boycott.
Modelo’s international rights are owned by Anheuser-Busch but its U.S. rights are owned by consumer goods conglomerate Constellation Brands because of a 2013 antitrust intervention by the Department of Justice.
A question about Bud Light’s predicament: would you say that, just possibly, featuring a transgender guy drinking Bud Light while wearing a gown and bling jewelry – and then having its Vice President of Marketing insulting the people who were drinking it by saying “We had this hangover, I mean Bud Light had been kind of a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor, and it was really important that we had another approach” was a bit if a mistake? Just asking….
Yes, it is possible that Bud Light will come back in the future; that it will overcome its decision to try selling beer based on transgender acceptance.
But it is also possible – make that very possible – it will never achieve the status it had pre-Dylan Mulvaney.
Personally, I’m betting on Door #2.
