A top Anheuser-Busch executive spoke candidly about the backlash the company received after Bud Light partnered with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The beer giant’s global chief marketing officer Marcel Marcondes appeared at the Cannes Lions International Festival on Monday and addressed the boycott movement that caught fire earlier this year after Mulvaney promoted Bud Light on social media.
"It’s tough to see the controversial and divisive debates that have been happening in the U.S. in the last couple of weeks involving lots of brands and companies, including and especially Bud Light," Marcondes said, according to a report from AdAge. "It’s tough exactly because what we do is all about bringing people together."
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Marcondes said the indecent was a "wake-up call" for marketers like himself to be "very humble" during such divisive times.
"In times like this, when things get divisive and controversial so easily, I think it’s an important wake-up call to all of us marketers first of all to be very humble. That’s what we’re doing, being very humble, and really reminding ourselves of what we should do best every day, which is to really understand our consumers. Which is to really celebrate and appreciate every consumer that loves our brands—but in a way that can make them be together, not apart," Marcondes said to the festival crowd.
Marcondes went on to insist that the beleaguered Bud Light will make a comeback, saying it's a brand that should bring people together.
"That’s what Bud Light stands for — it exists to make beer easy to drink and easy to enjoy. That’s what we all, as a team, will be doing moving forward as a group. That’s what leaders do," Marcondes said. "Bud Light is coming back. It’s going all around the country, reconnecting with consumers, moving forward. That’s what you can expect from Bud Light in the U.S."
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Bud Light suffered a massive sales decline in recent months after Mulvaney began plugging the beer, even sending a can with the TikTok star's image on it.
Things only got worse for the beer brand when its vice president of marketing Alissa Heinerscheid swiped its core consumers by saying Bud Light's past advertising was "fratty" and "out of touch humor."
Bud Light lost its status as the top-selling beer in the U.S. as its parent company Anheuser-Busch lost $27 billion in stock value since March.
