When she was named vice president of marketing for Anheuser-Busch, Alissa Heinerscheid explained in a recent podcast interview, “I have this very clear mandate: we need to evolve and elevate this incredibly iconic brand.” Doing that, she asserted, “means having a campaign that is truly inclusive.”
However, the limitations of that assignment became apparent in recent days, when the company announced that Heinerscheid and his boss, Daniel Blake, have been given a leave of absence following a wave of right-wing outrage over a Bud Light ad campaign involving transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Heinerscheid’s efforts reflected Bud Light’s aspirations to shore up years of declining market share among consumers in liberal urban areas.
However, the resulting furore has led to a double-digit drop in sales in rural markets in states with a Republican majority, where a revolt against transgender rights has occurred.
“They have entered a polarized United States,” said Benj Steinman, the editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights, an industry publication. “They are at the center of the culture wars in a way that no company wants to be.”
On April 1, Mulvaney posted a video to his Instagram account showing off a can of Bud Light with his face printed on it as part of a promotion. Backlash and a boycott quickly followed, fueled by conservative media and personalities such as musician Kid Rock, who posted a profanity-filled video on Instagram in which he was shooting beer crates with a submachine gun.
Sales of Bud Light, Anheuser-Busch InBev’s largest brand, fell 17 percent in value in the week ending April 15, compared with a year ago, indicated an industry report. Despite the drop, Anheuser-Busch shares are near their highest level in a year, suggesting that investors may believe the storm will be short-lived.
Americus Reed, a marketing professor at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, said that for many companies that have openly embraced racial justice policy and LGBTQ rights in recent years, “this is another way to differentiate yourself in a competitive marketplace.” ”.
Reed cited Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, which has decades of developing a brand identity by showing its roots in the hippie enclave of Burlington, Vermont.
However, Anson Frericks, who was president of Anheuser-Busch’s US operations until last year, said that wasn’t necessarily the case for his former company, a huge brand with a customer base roughly evenly split between two sides of the partisan divide, with an identity associated more with commercials during sports games than with social justice.
“When you have these large corporations that have a storied brand identity, it just looks inauthentic when they suddenly get involved in these social campaigns,” said Frericks, now co-founder of Strive Asset Management, an investment firm that has positioned itself against the trend towards socially conscious investments.
BY: CHARLES HOMANS
BBC-NEWS-SRC: http://www.nytsyn.com/subscribed/stories/6693975, IMPORTING DATE: 2023-05-02 22:50:09
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