Bud Light’s controversial partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney could have been a “strategic” attempt to permanently alter the brand’s audience, according to an anonymous former employee.
The popular beer brand came under fire in April after a post from Mulvaney’s Instagram account featured a personalized Bud Light can. The backlash against the brand in response to partnering with the transgender figure led to a massive slump in sales.
Though the company’s CEO insisted in a statement that it “never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” the ex-Anheuser-Busch worker suggested that the move was intentional.
“[Employees] expressed the fact that they were shocked. ‘Why would they do this? What were they thinking?’ Especially now. This is the worst; it’s like the worst time yet, the best timing yet if a company were trying to change the way it operates from a corporate level. And that’s just my opinion,” he said to OutKick’s Tomi Lahren.