What happened:

In April 2023, Anheuser-Busch, the founding company of Bug Light partnered with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender TikTok star. She was promoting their “Easy to Carry Contest” which had a grand prize of $15,000. They had also sent her a small case of beer with her face on it for her first anniversary of transitioning. Bud Light had also released a proud version of their cans which contributed to conservatives boycotting the brand. Conservatives were enraged about this promotion, and it had the most backlash with them since the “progressive” commercials from Gillette and Nike. They had called for a boycott of the Budweiser brand and even had celebrities such as Kid Rock mad (he shot cases of Bud Light with a rifle). Many conservatives were destroying cases of Bud Light in stores, buying them and running them over with trucks, shooting the cases of beer, and overall refusing to buy the product. John Carrillo, a conservative pundit, misgendered Dylan and called her a “grown man who dresses like little girls,” and others implied she’s a sexual predator. A go-to for conservatives against members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

They Threw Dylan to the Wolves (Conservatives):

They did nothing to protect Dylan from their attacks and their response (above) does not address all of the hate and death threats Dylan was receiving from Conservatives. They made no response to Dylan getting all of the hate and as they said themselves, “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people.” My issue with this statement is the fact that they knew their base was widely conservative and hated LGBTQ+ people. They knew this and should’ve seen this backlash happening before it happened. They needed to be more prepared when dealing with this situation considering it took them a while to respond. They only responded because they were losing sales on a beer that tasted disgusting. They didn’t issue anything telling people to stop harassing and sending threats to Dylan which sat wrong with a lot of LGBTQ+ Orgs. and the members of the community. They also placed two of their marketing executives on leave because of the backlash and the LGBTQ+ community was not happy about it. The Human Rights Organization told the company that it would lose its perfect Corporate Equality Index score. This prompted the company to make a $200,000 donation to the Communities of Color Initiative which is under the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce. This is the bare minimum for the mental and potentially physical harm they caused to Dylan for not sticking up for her and issuing a terrible response.

The Evaluation of Budlight:

They handled this situation terribly and there are many things they could’ve done. We will start with the first thing being sticking up for Dylan when your entire customer base starts sending her death threats. Dylan was the most affected out of all of this considering she was sent death threats and terrible messages from them. The community itself was affected because the company not doing anything showed conservatives they could continually bully and harass them without repercussions. The crisis is severe for them only because they lost a lot of revenue because of the tantrum their main customer base threw. Honestly, why they decided to branch out with Dylan for this promotion is beyond me and it does sound like they’re just wanting brownie points with LGBTQ+ people. They may not have been aware of how bad the crisis would be, but they knew it would get them customers somewhere. The brand not only lost credibility with its customer base but a lot of gay bars have dropped them because of their lack of response. They were seen as an ally but lost it when they let their customers send death threats and threw Dylan out like a rag.

How They Should’ve Responded (No, Ukuleles are not present.):

Respond at least 24 hours after the backlash as the quicker the response, the better the public may take it.

One: Apologize for upsetting your fan base and also tell them to leave Dylan alone. They were the ones who contacted her for the promotion and they certainly knew what they were getting into.

Two: Apologize to Dylan directly as they left her alone without support. Apologize for allowing their customer base to send her death threats. She had left the internet for a short amount of time and Budlight did nothing.

Three: Say you’re committed to being inclusive and supportive of everyone. Don’t cave because of losing money from a conservative temper tantrum.

Posting the response on Twitter would most likely be their best bet as it’s where a lot of people go. The apology could look something like below. I do think it would be better if the CEO posted it directly and didn’t use “we.” Yes, the company did have Dylan do this promotion, but the CEO is the person behind the company and therefore should be the one apologizing and reaching out to Dylan privately. If they want to make a statement in video format as well, they can always contact a news channel, or post it on their website and share it on Twitter. They should and will not include any instruments in this apology. A phone call to Dylan should also be done to ensure that she’s mentally okay, the CEO or someone else in a higher position should do this. The CEO should be the one who apologizes to Dylan privately and publicly. I think it’s important for the CEO to sound like he genuinely means it and it means formal writing seen from PR. (Do not let PR write this apology, please.)

A Better Apology Sample:

As the CEO of the company, it is my responsibility to release this statement regarding what’s happened recently to one of our promoters, Dylan Mulvaney. I want to take accountability and apologize directly to Dylan. I am sorry for leaving you to defend yourself against the customer base of my company. I didn’t know how divisive this issue was and I do full-heartedly apologize for allowing the consumers to send, comment, and harass you.

To our customers, I am sorry for upsetting you with who is promoting our products. I do want to say that I and the company are committed to being inclusive to everyone. I don’t believe in discriminating against someone because they are different. Everyone can enjoy and drink a beer and it doesn’t have to be political. I ask you all to stop harassing Dylan and to continue enjoying your beer. If you don’t want to buy it then I’m sure the company will not miss your money.

I am sorry for upsetting everyone. I am sorry for subjecting Dylan to all of the harassment. I would never wish that on anyone, and I have learned from my mistakes. I will be reaching out to Dylan privately to apologize. Our beer is for everyone, and I will always stand by that.

Would this Apology Do Well?

Looking at the comments, retweets, quote tweets, and views of the post can help determine if this does well. I do think the majority of the comments will probably read like a toddler commented on them or look like: “woke trash,” “go woke, go broke,” and “I will never buy your beer again.” I will also leave out the cuss words because I have read comments that involve them, and I don’t feel like typing them. Overall, the response probably will be what everyone expects from their main consumer base.

I think they would still be continuing to boycott the company had they posted an apology similar to mine. I do think this would be appreciated by their general consumers who don’t care about who they partner with. The main person I think this would go over well with is Dylan, and I think she’d appreciate the CEO reaching out and apologizing. I would love to think that this post would go over well with the LGBTQ+ Community as a whole but there will always be skeptical people. We call their inclusivity “rainbow capitalism” they do it for money and nothing else. I do think a lot of the community would see the apology as a good thing, but I think they already tarnished their reputation by allowing the harassment to continue for more than a day.