Budweiser is once again being mocked for its attempt to support military veterans after the beer brand seemed to have a terrible weekend of sales at a recent motorcycle rally.
Anheuser-Busch InBev owns Budweiser and its stablemate beer, Bud Light. Both brands have faced an ongoing national boycott campaign over the latter’s collaboration with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Bud Light had sent Mulvaney commemorative, not-for-sale cans of beer with her face on them to mark the one-year anniversary of her gender-affirming transition. However, since April, it has led to passionate boycotts mostly among conservatives who said the partnership had betrayed the brand’s traditional demographic.
Over the weekend, videos and photos emerged on social media from the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota. The footage allegedly showed almost nobody at the event buying Budweiser beer from a branded tent. Newsweek has been unable to verify the video immediately.
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Budweiser and its local distributor, Quality Brands of the Black Hills, were the official beer sponsors of the 83rd rally. As part of the deal, the two companies provide custom Sturgis and Budweiser signage, but also give mutual donations to local charities that raise money for the Black Hills area.
Following the reported flop, Budweiser took to X, the social-media site formerly known as Twitter, to promote its “camo cans.”
“New can, same support for our nation’s veterans. Our camo cans are now available nationwide,” the company wrote alongside a photo of the bespoke can.
For the past 13 years, Budweiser has fundraised for Folds of Honor, an organization that provides educational scholarships to spouses and children of fallen and disabled military service-members and first responders.
However, despite Budweiser’s efforts for military veterans, many X users rushed to mock the brand, and pointed out its alleged poor sales at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.
“Camo cans? Bud & Bud Light would need to camouflage their beer with new brand names to sell any. The Sturgis pavilion disaster hopefully wakes some people in Belgium up to their failure,” wrote one person.
Another added: “Is the CEO and Marketing VP of Bud Light still employed? If the answer is “yes” then I will continue to support the boycott of Bud Light and all AB products.”
And a third commented: “Would have been a power move if it was BBD (Budweiser Before Dylan). Now it just look like you are trying too hard to get the consumers back that you yourself said you were trying to get away from… too fratty?”
But one person had a different opinion: “It’s just beer. If it tastes good, I drink it. Doing ads with a trans person has no effect whatsoever.”
Newsweek contacted Anheuser-Busch InBev by email for comment.