Talk about a tear in their beer.That’s because US suds sales are at their lowest in almost 25 years — largely due to Bud Light’s disastrous marketing hook up with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, according to industry analysts..“It’s not so much a beer problem as it is a Bud Light problem,”Molson Coors spokesperson.Beer sales were already down more than 5% in the first three quarters of 2023, hampered by backlashes and boycotts against the biggest selling brand Bud Light, according to US-based Beer Marketers Insights.Bud Light alone accounted for additional declines of 25%-30% per month, each month, since the campaign was announced on April 1.How bad is it?Earlier this year Mexico’s Modello unseated Bud Light as the #1 selling brand in the US for the first time in two decades..And while other brands, such as Molson Coors, picked up market share at Anheuser-Busch’s expense, it wasn’t enough to offset broader declines through the entire industry. The maker of red label Budweiser and Michelob has — or more properly, had — about 35% of the US beer market.It has since tried to recapture its traditional market share among heterosexual males with aggressive advertising and sponsorship deals with the UFC and the NFL, but so far to no avail. Bud Light sales were down another 28% to December 9, according to the Wall Street Journal.But it’s not just Bud Light that’s to blame for flat sales. Experts also cited broader market trends among Gen-Zers who are increasingly turning to infused canned cocktails or alcohol-free alternatives — like cannabis — than their parents and older siblings.But a Molson Coors rep dismissed those concerns. “It’s not so much a beer problem as it is a Bud Light problem,” an unnamed spokesperson told the WSJ.
