As for Bud Light, the good news is that the sales decline seems to have leveled off, but they remain about 23% lower than the same period last year. At the same time, BWC said that the “negative halo” continues to affect its other brands, such as Budweiser, Ultra, Busch Light and Natural Light, although the rate of decline for these brands has also decreased compared to the previous week.
“In short, it looks like the weekly brand decline has started to level off at this point,” Bump Williams, BMC’s CEO, said in an email. “It’s definitely a strong weekly decline.”
More troubling for Bud Light, the leading U.S. beer brand, is that its competitors are maintaining or increasing dollar sales compared to last year.
The growth was particularly unexpected during Cinco de Mayo, which tends to give Mexican imports like Corona and Modelo a tailwind. For the week ended May 6, Coors Light retail sales were up 22.2% year-over-year, compared to 20.3% for the week ended April 29.
Similarly, Miller Lite sales were up 22.8% and 20.6% for the same time periods, according to BWC.
During the company’s earnings call last week, Michel Dukeris, CEO of AB InBev, downplayed the negative impact of the decision to promote Bud Light with Mulvaney. He noted that the decline in Bud Light sales during the first three weeks of April is about 1% of global volumes.
“As for the current situation and the impact of Bud Light sales, it is too early to draw conclusions,” he said.
The turmoil that Bud Light and AB InBev have faced in the wake of the Mulvaney controversy may put food and beverage companies in a difficult position in the future, particularly as they are forced to speak out on issues that are important to the very consumers who buy their products. Companies may be less inclined to speak out or comment only on issues that are agreed upon by the majority of the public or that are less controversial.
Recently, Molson Coors’ Miller Lite garnered some attention with an ad featuring Ilana Glazer, according to Los Angeles Magazine. The ad, in which the comedian talks about the segregation of women in beer production compared to the number of beer ads with women in bikinis, discusses Miller Lite’s plan to buy back sexist ads and turn them into something good. So far, there is no evidence that this has affected beer sales.