Everyone remembers April 2023. Dylan Mulvaney. The commemorative can. Kid Rock shooting cases of Bud Light with a machine gun. The boycott that seemingly came out of nowhere and knocked the number one beer in America off its perch after 22 straight years at the top.
Everyone remembers it wrong.
The boycott didn’t destroy Bud Light. It revealed what was already true. And understanding the difference is one of the most important lessons in brand strategy I’ve seen play out in real time in my career.
Here’s what was actually happening before Dylan Mulvaney posted that video.
Beer sales in America had been declining for years. Hard seltzer had exploded — White Claw and Truly were pulling drinkers away from light beer by the millions. Craft beer had spent a decade pulling drinkers upmarket. Gen Z was barely drinking at all, and when they did, they weren’t reaching for a Bud Light. From 2011 to 2021, Anheuser-Busch’s total U.S. market share dropped from nearly 47 percent to under 39 percent. The category was shrinking, and Bud Light, as its biggest brand, had the most to lose.
