The boycott began in response to a social media promotion the company conducted with actress and TikTok personality Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender woman.

[5] The video triggered a backlash from American conservatives, including singer Kid Rock, who helped instigate a boycott against Bud Light and Anheuser-Busch more broadly.

[18][19] Amidst the ensuing controversy, critics blamed Bud Light's new vice president of marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, as responsible for the brand's move.

Heinerscheid, who became a vice president at the company in July 2022, stated that her goal was to evolve the Bud Light advertising to make it more inclusive,[20] and to move it away from its "fratty and out-of-touch humor".

Mulvaney was criticized by several high-profile Republicans and right-wing personalities including Marsha Blackburn, Caitlyn Jenner, and Marjorie Taylor Greene.

The partnership faced a rebuff from the American right and anti-trans groups, who called for a boycott of Bud Light and its parent company Anheuser-Busch.

[29] According to The Washington Post, the advertisement led figures in right-wing media, such as Fox News, to refer to Mulvaney in "disparaging and often in transphobic terms nearly a dozen times over the next three days".

[38][39][40] After Anheuser-Busch attempted to distance itself from Mulvaney in response, members of the LGBT community started their own boycott of the company, led by several prominent gay bars in Chicago.

[41] In April 2023, Florida Governor and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis criticized Bud Light's association with Mulvaney as part of a trend of "woke companies" that were "trying to change our country", stating that "pushback is in order across the board".

[53][54] On April 17, 2023, responding to the boycott, Anheuser-Busch rolled out a revised advertising campaign featuring Clydesdale horses against the backdrop of rural, small town American landscapes.

[61] On October 31, 2023, AB InBev CEO Michel Doukeris stated that the company will be shifting to universal themes, stating:[62] Consumers continue to want the Bud Light brand to concentrate on the platforms that all consumers love, and we are doing just that through investing in partnerships with the NFL, Fields of Honor, news platforms, college football, and our recently announced return to partnering with the UFC.

[67] Singer-songwriter Jason Isbell directly responded to Kid Rock's tweets, sarcastically sharing past Coors Light advertising which supported LGBT causes.

[67] Donald Trump Jr. called for an end to the boycott in April 2023, stating that he was not in favor of "destroying an American, iconic company" over "the stupidity of someone in a marketing campaign".

[70] In June 2023, Mulvaney said that Bud Light did not support her following the backlash to the advertisement, adding that "For months now, I've been scared to leave my house ...I have been ridiculed in public.

[10] At a shareholder meeting on May 4, 2023, Anheuser-Busch InBev's CEO Michel Doukeris distanced the company from Mulvaney saying "this was one can, one influencer, one post and not a campaign.

[13][14] Doukeris said the company would increase support to wholesalers and triple Bud Light's advertising budget in an attempt to recover lost sales.

[77][78][79] In late August 2023, Anheuser-Busch would face criticism from Cruz for stonewalling the investigation while Armstrong Williams assessed that using a TikTok influencer showed a clear intent to market to underage children.

[80][81] Responding to Anheuser-Busch's alleged failure to support Mulvaney during the boycott, the Human Rights Campaign Foundation rescinded the company's top rating for LGBTQ+ equality in May 2023.

[82] By the end of May, the terms "Bud Lighted" and "Bud Lighting" began to circulate on the internet to describe a boycott whose "strategy is to crush so-called rainbow capitalism by branding companies as "woke" and calling for boycotts over everything from Adidas' gender-inclusive swimwear to a The North Face marketing campaign featuring drag queen and environmentalist Pattie Gonia.

HSBC analyst Carlos Laboy explained the decision's thought process "It is unclear how ABI will reverse eroding US volume and brand relevance, and fix distributors' trust, without leadership changes.

[91] On June 3, Brayden King, a professor of management and organizations, gave an interview to CNBC calling the Bud Light boycott an outlier in the right's attack on "woke capitalism" because it is the first one to actually harm the company's sales.

CNBC also predicted that the boycott would only strengthen as June Pride Month began, and to expect Molson Coors stock to continue to climb.

[17] Also on June 3, Bud Light premiered a series of ads during the first game of the 2023 Stanley Cup Finals which fell back on "macho" adverts "screaming masculinity" centering around the company releasing a limited run of Harley-Davidson partnered cans.

[94] Struggling sales and stock price, as well as a nearly $1 billion investment in Heineken N.V. by Bill Gates prior to the controversy, began to threaten AB InBev's position as the number 1 beer producer and distributor in the United States.

[97][98] Sales would continue to decline during the July 4th weekend, with Bud Light dropping to the 14th place in popularity, falling behind Pabst Blue Ribbon and Miller Lite.

At the same time Yuengling reported that they have been consistently selling out their entire stock and seek to expand their distribution to the remaining 24 states where they aren't sold to fill the void of AB InBev and Bud-Light.

[117][118] For the April-to-June quarter, AB InBev reported that its United States revenue had dropped by 10.5% from the previous year, primarily due to a volume decline in Bud Light.

Anheuser-Busch cited a $400 million drop in revenue for the reason for the sale, which turned Tilray into the fifth largest craft beer producer in the United States.

Additionally, AB InBev's Chief Marketing Officer, Marcel Marcondes, stated that the company's "leading horse" and "top priority" is Corona.

[129] This specific facility was also subject to a boycott by the Sacramento Area Brewers Guild since 2015 and had its sales impacted by the 2023 California wildfires, which prevented outdoor seating.