Anheuser-Busch plans to temporarily redesign some of its Bud Light and Budweiser packaging as it tries to recover from the Dylan Mulvaney fiasco, The Post has learned.
Last week, the company held a meeting with distributors at its U.S. headquarters in St. Louis to discuss its strategy for dealing with the backlash, according to sources briefed on the situation.
One of the planned new initiatives is a temporary redesign of the Budweiser and Bud Light aluminum bottles, according to a distributor who declined to be named.
Anheuser-Busch will produce camouflage-printed bottles with graphics of the “Folds of Honor” program, which provides educational grants to children and spouses of fallen and disabled U.S. military and first responders, the executive said.
“It’s an aluminum bottle,” the source told The Post, asking not to be named. “I believe this is the only package that will pass, but I’m not 100% sure.”
The redesign is part of Anheuser-Busch’s effort to invest heavily in the brand this spring and summer, the Post reported. The company kicked off the blitz during the NFL draft in late April.
In some supermarkets in New York, the company this weekend offered customers a free T-shirt with the “Ultra Mom” logo for anyone who bought Michelob Ultra products.
Other likely marketing strategies, experts speculate, include discounting the beer in stores and investing heavily in sports marketing, and including the U.S. military and country and western music, farmers, law enforcement and first responders in their ads.
As reported by The Post, nationwide Bud Light retail sales fell 23.6% from a year ago in the week ending May 6 — slightly worse than the 23.3% drop in the week ending April 29, according to data from Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ data.
Sales of other Anheuser-Busch brands also continued to fall, albeit at a slower pace than the previous week. These included Budweiser, down 9.7% from an 11.4% drop a week earlier; Michelob Ultra, 2.9% down from 4.3%; and natural light, down 2.5% from 5.2% last week.
Meanwhile, rival beer brands competing with Bud Light — the No. 1 beer in the U.S., which generated $4.8 billion in sales last year — are grabbing market share faster as Anheuser-Busch grapples with the fallout from its ill-fated connection to the transgender community. influencer that launched on April 1.
