Shares in Anheuser-Busch InBev SA (AB InBev), the company that owns Bud Light, have slumped by 5.2 percent since last Friday, wiping more than $4 billion off the company’s value as conservative activists continue a boycott.
Bud Light has been targeted by right-wing campaigners since April over its partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, who received a personalized beer can from the brand as part of her Day 365 of Girlhood celebration.
The Bud Light boycott has become a key test of conservative market firepower. A number of other companies, including Target and Kohl’s, have been the targeted by boycotts in response to their LGBTQ advocacy, and in particular the sale of Pride-branded products aimed at children.
Between Thursday and May 26, the value of an AB InBev share fell by 2.78 points, or 5.26 percent. Over the same period, the company’s market cap, commonly used to determine value based on cost of outstanding shares, fell by $4.3 billion, according to analytical website Companies Market Cap.
Bryan Bedder/GETTY
Since March 31, the day before Mulvaney shared a video of the personalized Bud Light can on social media, the value of AB InBev shares has fallen by more than 20 percent.
Newsweek has reached out to the AB InBev press office by email for comment.
JPMorgan analysis is forecasting AB InBev’s 2023 earnings before interest and tax to slump by 26 percent, which has been directly linked to the boycott campaign. A briefing from the banking giant said: “We believe there is a subset of American consumers who will not drink a Bud Light for the foreseeable future.”
On April 14, Bud Light CEO Brendan Whitworth responded to the controversy with a statement: “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.
“We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”
In a TikTok post published this week, Mulvaney claimed she had been followed “on and off for the past two months,” since the controversy began.
She added: “Usually, I just try to pretend it’s not happening, but today it really bugged me.”
Breaking her silence about the boycott on April 28, in an Instagram message, Mulvaney said: “What I’m struggling to understand is the need to dehumanize and to be cruel.
“I don’t think that’s right. You know, dehumanization has never fixed anything in history ever.”
Videos of large stacks of unsold Bud Light in stores have gone viral in recent weeks, with conservative commentators attributing it to the ongoing boycott.