A POISONOUS BEER ..... BUD LIGHT HAS GONE TOO FAR BY SPONSERING A BUNCH OF NAKED MEN PARADING IN FRONT OF CHILDREN

Bud Light served as official sponsor at Toronto Pride parade - where wild footage shows naked men marching and dancing in front of children and families along parade route

The annual event featured scantily-clad performers dancing on a Bud Light stage and a group of nudists walking through the streets 

 

By Melissa Koenig

 

Daily Mail 

June 26, 2023

 

Bud Light served as the official sponsor of the Toronto Pride Parade on Sunday, despite its recent controversy with LGBTQ influencer Dylan Mulvaney

 

Embattled beer company Bud Light served as an official sponsor of the Toronto Pride parade Sunday when naked men marched in the street as children and families lined the sidewalks. 

The annual event featured a float adorned with Bud Light signs, on which girls in shorts and colorful Bud Light shirts danced to music.

It also saw a group of nudists walking through the streets and scantily-clad performers dancing on a Bud Light-sponsored stage.

The decision to sponsor the event comes just weeks after the company apparently sponsored an 'all-ages Pride event' in Arizona.

The company is still seeing its profits tumble, with sales plummeting another 27 percent for the week ending June 10, as it continues to face backlash for a controversial partnership featuring trans TikToker Dylan Mulvaney.

 

The beer brand sponsored a stage where a group of scantily-clad performers wearing stockings over their heads performed

Videos posted online showed a group of naked men walk through the streets at the Pride parade as families watched

 

Footage captured by The Post Millennial's Beth Basich from Sunday's Pride Parade showed dozens of attendees marching in the streets in full view of children who went to the festival with their families.

One carried a sign saying, 'Life is short: Play Naked' and 'Be bare, be bold' as the crowd cheered them on.

Another of the naked marchers held up a sign saying: 'Proudly celebrating my diversity.' 

Other footage showed a stage, clearly adorned with Bud Light branding, featuring  scantily-clad dancers wearing fishnets, nipple stickers and nylons over their face with cartoon-like eyes drawn onto it.

The footage was shared online and drew condemnation as people questioned the 'family friendly' atmosphere. There were also videos from Pride events in Seattle and New York City. 

In Seattle, the explicit footage posted by a Post Millennial staffer showed naked men with pride flags painted on their bodies riding down the street and waving to crowds of people, including many children. 

Children and their parents can be seen on the sidelines, clapping and cheering for the naked gang. 

In New York City, millions of people turned out for Sunday's pride march. However, it wasn't always peaceful as a heated moment in Washington Square Park in NYC shows a crowd becoming physical with the woman who was holding a sign that read 'Defend Female Sex Based Rights.'

She was quickly surrounded as the mob began smacking her sign from all directions as she screamed 'stop f****** touching me.'

The woman, who identifies on social media as 'LGBT Nonprofit Whistleblower' K Yang, had her sign ripped violently out of her hands as she was hit in the head with a cup of water.

 

Bud Light also sponsored a float at the parade, as it celebrated its 10 year partnership with Pride Toronto

Bud Light also provided $100,000 to various organizations that support the LGBTQIA+ community across Canada

Bud Light signs were clearly visible on the stage where the risque dancers were performing during the Pride events in Toronto

 

Bud Light served as a sponsor for Pride events across North America, including gathering in Chicago, San Francisco and Toronto. 

On its website, Bud Light Canada affirms it 'has been a proud partner of Pride Toronto for the last 10 years,' and says: 'This year, we're commemorating this milestone with Pride Toronto by featuring them on our can design, as well as continuing as the official beer sponsor of the festival.' 

There are several sponsors listed for the Toronto Pride Month celebrations - including Amazon, Captain Morgan, Crest, Home Depot, Neutrogena and Sephora.

Bud Light also stated it provided $100,000 to various organizations that support the LGBTQIA+ community across Canada and has created a range of Bud Light beer cans to commemorate the partnership.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Bud Light's parent company, Anheuser-Busch, for comment. 

The risque Pride parade came just weeks after Bud Light apparently co-sponsored an 'all-ages Pride event' in Flagstaff, Arizona

The beer company was listed as a sponsor on a poster for the Pride in the Pines event on June 17, but after it received criticism on Twitter, Flagstaff Pride recalled the poster and posted a new one eliminating any mention of Bud Light, saying: 'We put out an incorrect promotional poster, which included Bud Light as a sponsor.'

Bud Light executives also denied they were sponsoring the event, which featured drag queens but was listed as a 'family festival event' and a 'safe space' for all visitors.

But Bud Light was still listed among the sponsors on the organization's website, and a poster for the Pride in the Pines festival on the site said it was 'presented by Bud Light.'

The company continues to reel from its ad campaign with Dylan Mulvaney, who posted a video announcing she was partnering with Bud Light in early April.

In the controversial promotion, Mulvaney, 26, posted a video on April 1 of herself cracking open a Bud Light on her Instagram page.

She showed off the customized can with her face on it - one of many corporate freebies she gets and promotes to her millions of followers.

Bud Light was accused of alienating their traditional customer base by partnering with Mulvaney, which led many conservatives - including Kid Rock - to boycott the brand.

Conservatives have continued with the boycott, leading to the Belgian based brewer to place two executives responsible for partnership— Alissa Heinerscheid, the vice president of marketing, and her boss, Daniel Blake — on leave in April.

After Anheuser-Busch tried to distance itself from the Mulvaney promotion, Bud Light also faced backlash from the opposite direction, with pro-LGBTQ groups accusing the company of abandoning the transgender influencer. 

 

The beer giant is continuing to reel from the effects of its disastrous ad campaign featuring trans TikToker Dylan Mulvaney

Bud Light commemorated her first full year as a transgender woman with a beer can featuring her face. It has also apparently created Pride beer cans for the Toronto festival

 

Ever since that disastrous ad campaign, the beer giant lost its crown as America's bestselling beer to Modelo, a Mexican lager brewed by Grupo Modelo - which is also owned by Bud manufacturer Anheuser-Busch.

Bud Light's sales dropped 26.8 percent for the week ending June 10, the worst week-on-week performance since its early April advertising campaign.

It's a deeper drop from the week ending on June 3, which saw a 24.4 percent drop, according to Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ. The new low beats the previous worst - an almost 26 percent drop - for the week ending May 25.

Anheuser-Busch's other US brands - including Budweiser, Michelob Ultra and Natural Light - have also seen a significant decline in sales since the controversy. Bud is down 10 percent, while Natty Light and Michelob are down 2.3 and 2.4 percent, respectively. 

'This was a tough week for Bud Light and other beer brands,' Bump Williams, owner of the consulting company, said. 

 

The once-popular beer company saw its worst week in sales, dropping 26.8 percent the week of June 10

 

Recently, Anheuser-Busch's chief marketing officer said that the Bud Light partnership with Dylan Mulvaney was a humbling reminder it needs to understand its consumers better. 

Marcel Marcondes ironically made the comments while accepting an award for 'Creative Marketer of the Year' at Cannes Lions - a lavish industry conference in the south of France dubbed the 'Oscars for the adverting industry.'

Though AB was named the winner of the award before the fiasco erupted, it was not officially awarded until Monday, meaning there was a mighty elephant in the room. Some even said the company should turn down the award, the Wall Street Journal reported.

'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,' he said.

'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.'

The session was described in programming notes as a talk in part about AB InBev's 'relentless focus on connecting with consumers in meaningful ways,' The Wall Street Journal reported.

Marcondes has worked at AB InBev for nearly two decades, according to his LinkedIn profile, and now oversees its global marketing strategies of AB brands including Budweiser, Bud Light, Michelob ULTRA, Stella Artois and others.

'It's tough to see the controversial and divisive debates that have been happening in the US in the last couple of weeks involving lots of brands and companies, including and especially Bud Light,' Marcondes said during the presentation.

'It's tough exactly because what we do is all about bringing people together.'

'That's what Bud Light stands for - it exists to make beer easy to drink and easy to enjoy,' he said.

'That's what we all, as a team, will be doing moving forward as a group. That's what leaders do. 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 US.'

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Bud Light Giving Away Beer for Free to Try to Save July 4 Sales

 

By Matthew Impelli 

 

Newsweek

June 26, 2023

 

Bud Light Giving Away Beer For Free To Try To Save July 4 Sales

 

Bud Light announced a new rebate that makes its beers cheaper—and sometimes free—ahead of the upcoming July 4 holiday, as the beer brand still faces declining sales amid boycotts.

On its website, Bud Light debuted a $15 rebate for purchases of a 15-pack of Budweiser, Bud Light, Budweiser Select or Budweiser Select 55. Per the rebate's terms and services, the discount amount will be added to be equal to the purchase price of one 15-pack of the beers mentioned above, up to $15. For eligibility, purchases must be made between June 15 and July 8, the announcement said.

The announcement comes as Bud Light continues to face criticism and boycotts after partnering with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer and activist, in April. Mulvaney posted a video that revealed the company had sent her a commemorative beer can with her face on it to commemorate her transition. The video prompted a wave of backlash against the company, mainly by conservative voices, who opposed the partnership.

The rebate announced for the July 4 holiday makes Bud Light beer free in some areas, as Target's website shows a 15-pack of the beer currently selling for around $12.99. The rebate will be paid out to consumers via a pre-paid digital card, the announcement said.

As Bud Light boycotts continue, the beer's sales have also seen an impact. Earlier this month, Newsweek obtained Nielsen IQ Bud Light sales data from Bump Williams Consulting, which showed a decline of 30.2 percent in the beer's sales for the week ending on June 10, when compared to the same week a year earlier.

In May, Bud Light announced a similar promotion to give away free beer for the Memorial Day holiday. The company issues a $15 rebate for the same purchases, a 15-pack of Budweiser, Bud Light, Budweiser Select or Budweiser Select 55, making the beer free for some consumers, depending on the purchase price.

As Bud Light continues to face criticism and declining sales, the company also announced this month a new plan to assist employees impacted by the controversy.

"We recognize that over the last two months, the discussion surrounding our company and Bud Light has moved away from beer, and this has impacted our consumers, our business partners, and our employees," Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth said on June 15.

Whitworth said that Bud Light was continuing to invest more money to assist frontline workers as well as telling customers that the beer is "easy to drink and easy to enjoy."

Newsweek reached out to Anheuser-Busch via email for comment.