As Anheuser-Busch sales continue to suffer under an ongoing boycott triggered by Bug Light’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, the company is preparing to roll out new beer bottles featuring camouflage prints, according to the New York Post.
The alcoholic beverage giant met with distributors in St. Louis at its U.S. headquarters to determine a new strategy amid the backlash, sources familiar with the situation told the Post.
One of the new plans includes temporarily redesigning Budweiser and Bud Light aluminum bottles, a distributor who requested anonymity said.
In addition to camouflage print, the bottles will feature images from the “Folds of Honor,” an organization that provides “life-changing scholarships to the spouses and children of America’s fallen or disabled military.”
“It’s an aluminum bottle,” a source said, according to The Post. “I believe it is the only package that will be transitioning, but I am not 100% certain on that.”
It remains to be seen whether the redesign will be enough to end the boycott, which has caused Anheuser-Busch sales to plummet.
Bud Light sales have dropped around 23 percent year-over-year, with in-store sales down a whopping 26 percent during the week ending April 22.
Sales of Budweiser, Michelob Ultra and Natural Light – all Anheuser-Busch products – are also down.
On April 1, Mulvaney posted a video on Instagram promoting a Bud Light sweepstakes competition and showed a beer can with his face on it that he said the company sent him.
The partnership sparked a nationwide boycott, which gained the attention and support of popular cultural figures, including artist Kid Rock and country music star Travis Tritt.
Beer-industry specialists at Bump Williams Consulting warned that Bud Light “is in serious trouble this year.”
“I think it runs the risk of losing that No. 1 position at the end of calendar year 2023 to Modelo Especial,” Bump Williams, founder and CEO of the Connecticut-based consulting firm, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
