Kid Rock is changing his tune on Bud Light. He was one of the first people to declare a boycott on Bud Light after the beer brand briefly partnered with a transgender influencer, leading to a significant and lasting sales slump.
Rock told Tucker Carlson on his X show that Bud Light “deserved a black eye and they got one” for the partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, but then added he’s over the boycott. “So, do I want to hold their head underwater and drown them because they made a mistake? No, I think they got the message.”
Rock’s reversal might come as good news for Bud Light, which has experienced a steep slump in sales since the transphobic backlash began in April. The Mulvaney partnership caused some of its core customers to abandon the beer and Bud Light’s botched response alienated supporters as well as the LGBTQ community.
Weekly sales for Bud Light are still down about 30% according to scan data obtained by Beer Business Daily, showing little signs of reversal despite discounts and new ad campaigns focused on football and music.
In April, Rock posted a video of him shooting cases of Bud Light with a machine gun and yelled “F*** Bud Light.” He told Carlson that the video he did was “marketing to his folks” who drink light beer and to “make a statement that a lot of us aren’t cool with this.”
Rock owns a bar in Nashville, which CNN visited in the summer and found it serving Bud Light, despite the singer’s alleged boycott of the brand. In August, Rock was also seen in pictures obtained by TMZ drinking Bud Light.
“Hopefully, other companies get it too, but you know, at the end of the day, I don’t think the punishment that they’ve been getting at this point fits the crime,” Rock told Carlson. “I would like to see people get us back on board and become bigger because that’s the America that I want to live in.”
Last month, Anheuser-Busch InBev said its US chief marketing officer Benoit Garbe is resigning at the end of the year.
The executive reshuffling will “reduce layers within our organization and better enable our top commercial leaders to drive our business and legacy forward,” said A-B US CEO Brendan Whitworth in a statement.
In A-B’s most recent earnings report, sales to US retailers declined nearly 17% “primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light.” On the October analyst call, the company said more than 40% of lapsed Bud Light customers said they’re willing to give the brand another chance.
