Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said he is looking into why a transgender influencer was selected for a Bud Light partnership earlier this year—namely, if it was designed to target their followers on social media.
In a letter to ad agency Captiv8, the senator wrote that Anheuser-Busch, the owner of Bud Light, reached out to the firm in March after a Bud Light “team member who ‘wanted to push and make change’” sought to appeal to younger people. The agency then allegedly promoted the influencer, Dylan Mulvaney, “who was selected over other young influencers like 23-year-old actress Reneé Rapp” before a deal for a “couple of weeks” was hashed out, he said, according to a news release issued Thursday.
“Both Captiv8 and Bud Light signed off on the influencer’s now notorious April 1st Instagram reel,” which drew considerable backlash on social media and led to a monthslong boycott of the light beer brand, his release said.
Questions About Partnership
The senator also is seeking answers about whether Captiv8, which has cited data saying that 73 percent of Generation Z consumers make a purchase based on social media recommendations, was involved in a Mulvaney social media post in February in which the influencer was seen drinking a Bud Light in a bath. The firm, he said, confirmed its involvement in the influencer’s April 1 post.“The lack of a paid partnership label on both Mulvaney posts is especially significant given lingering questions about the timing and scope of the influencer’s work for Bud Light,” the letter added.
His letter noted that Anheuser-Busch’s CEO Michel Doukeris has said that there was no partnership between the social media influencer and Bud Light and that just “one can” was made in what appeared to be an attempt to distance the brand from the controversy. Mr. Doukeris has also said the post was “not an advertisement,” while claiming to the Financial Times that social media-driven “misinformation” was a reason behind the backlash.
“Yet Mulvaney appears to have been engaged for two distinct, sports-related campaigns during the Super Bowl and March Madness. The question is, if Captiv8 was enlisted in March, what role could it have had with respect to Mulvaney’s initial, February 11th post?” Mr. Cruz asked.
Sales Down
In October, Anheuser-Busch reported a 13.5 percent loss in its third-quarter revenue in the United States. The company’s U.S. sales also dropped 17 percent “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light,” the firm said.Bud Light, which was the No. 1 selling beer in the United States for decades, lost its top spot to Modelo Especial earlier this year, the Constellation Brands-owned beer said. Data provided by NIQ and Beer Business Daily shows that sales of the beer are still sinking: volumes are down 30 percent year-over-year in the four weeks ending Oct. 7.
Despite the dire sales figures, Mr. Doukeris told investors last month that its own surveys have found that about 40 percent of former Bud Light drinkers may give the brand a chance again.
The company has rolled out a significant amount of advertisements for NFL games and has partnered with Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce. Last month, both Anheuser-Busch and the UFC announced a joint partnership, although the contours of the deal weren’t provided.
Responding to the backlash over the Bud Light deal, UFC CEO Dana White again insisted that Americans should be drinking “barrels of Bud Light.”
“These people who consider themselves patriots, they’re [expletive] hardcore,” Mr. White said in a recent interview on the Full Send Podcast, responding to the controversy and attitudes around the brand. “I love this country. I am an American and I love this country. If you consider yourself a patriot and you’re talking about all the other beers out there, I know all the other beers out there. You should be drinking [expletive] barrels of Bud Light if ‘woke’ is what you’re worried about. Trust me.”
The Epoch Times has contacted Captiv8 and Anheuser-Busch for comment.
