Talk about a tear in their collective beers.That’s because sales of the ubiquitous Bud Lite have slipped even further, to third spot in the US, in the wake of its disastrous hookup with trans social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney.According to data from NielsenIQ that was analyzed by the Bump Williams consulting firm, Bud Light represented 6.5% of beer dollar sales during the four-week period ending July 6, which includes the July 4 long weekend..Modelo Especial, a Mexican import swill sold by Constellation Brands, took over the top spot accounting for 9.7% of beer dollar sales in American stores.Low-carb offering Michelob Ultra came in at second place with 7.3% of beer dollar sales nationwide, the data showed, as per the New York Post.By contrast, Bud Lite accounted for about 10% of all beer sales in the US as of February of 2023. That changed in April of last year when Bud Light’s hired Mulvaney, a transgender social-media influencer with millions of followers, as part of a March Madness promotion.This included Bud Light creating and sending custom beer cans to Mulvaney to mark "365 days of girlhood." By some estimates, the ill-fated marketing campaign has cost parent company Anheuser-Busch some USD$1.4 billion in lost sales..Since then it’s been all downhill despite efforts to shore up sales via marketing deals with UFC and the NFL, the brand’s core constituency. But there are signs those efforts are starting to pay off.“Bud Light is still the #1 selling beer in the United States on a volume basis (cases) and has started to recover from the Dylan Mulvaney situation that occurred on April 1st of 2023," a statement from the consulting firm to FOX Business reads. "While $ sales aren’t quite back into the ‘positive’ yet, the declines for the brand have improved dramatically and retailer support continues to improve week after week."
