A Budweiser distributor in Springfield, Missouri has canceled all planned appearances of the iconic Clydesdale horses, citing threats to its employees.
The news comes as the boycott of Bud Light on account of its partnership with trans activist Dylan Mulvaney continues to grow. The beer’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, is having to react to criticism as well as increasing problems, including a stock price that’s dipped.
Wil Fischer Distributing decided to cancel all of the Springfield Clydesdale showings, citing safety concerns for their employees, according to the local Fox outlet. The Clydesdales have long featured in commercials such as last year’s Budweiser Super Bowl ad. The horses also recently made their annual appearance at the Cardinals’s Busch Stadium for baseball’s 2023 Opening Day.
Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney was intended to brighten up the brand from its stale association with “fratty” college guys throughout America’s colleges.
“If we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand, there will be no future for Bud Light,” the beer’s VP of marketing explained last month. “What I brought to that was a belief in, okay, what does ‘evolve and elevate’ mean? It means inclusivity. It means shifting the tone. It means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive and feels lighter and brighter and different and appeals to women and to men.”
However, some beer drinkers have decided Bud Light’s woke messaging is not for them. Representative Dan Crenshaw (R., Tx.) announced he is boycotting Bud Light, making fun of the beer’s long-declining popularity by showing a fridge full of other brands. Country music singer Travis Tritt won’t drink any beverages made by Anheuser-Busch on his current national tour, Newsweek reported. And Kid Rock was criticized for a much stronger way of demonstrating his boycott. In a video response, the singer took an assault rifle to an array of Bud Light products and had some choice words for the brand.
Some bars throughout the country may begin setting Bud Light products to the side. Outkick reported that a self-proclaimed “cowboy bar” in Wyoming and its patrons dispensed with Bud Light, replacing it with Guinness. And now the Anheuser-Busch must contend with the conservative answer to the Mulvaney-aligned beer — namely, “Ultra Right Beer.” Newsweek mused the lighthearted announcement might provoke a lawsuit from the beer giant.
Experts are divided about whether such a boycott has legs. Fox News and the New York Post recently observed that Anheuser-Busch’s stock price has dropped, losing more than $6 billion in market capitalization since the end of March. However, there’s been a slight rebound and it’s doubtful whether the boycott will affect the company in the long term.
Evercore ISI analyst Robert Ottenstein told the New York Post it’s “way too early” to know the effect it will have on the company’s bottom line, with hard data on sales still some time away.
The Daily Wire reported that senior executives were in the dark about the decision to green-light the Mulvaney partnership. Sources told the outlet the company is pausing its marketing efforts and scrambling to implement a more “robust” process for evaluating the influencers it works with.
Publicly however, the company defended the partnership with the transgender influencer.
Mulvaney has also responded to the controversy, appearing this week on an episode of “iHeartPodcasts’s Onward With Rosie O’ Donnell.
“The reason I think I’m an easy target is because I’m still new to this. I think going after a trans woman who has been doing this for 20 years is a lot more difficult,” Mulvaney said.
“I have watched it get so much worse, as my timeline has gone on and it’s been very kind of odd to compare the two, my transition as well as all this anti-trans legislation simultaneously,” Mulvaney added.
