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Bud Light has lost hundreds of millions of dollars since it teamed up with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in a partnership in April last year. Although Bud Light has been frantically trying to save the brand over the past few months, one former Anheuser-Busch executive has spoken out to say they “didn't do a good job.”
Bud Light didn't “do a good job.”
Anson Frericks, former chief operating officer of Anheuser-Busch, Bud Light's parent company, told Fox Business that the brand is having a hard time winning back consumers because Anheuser-Busch hasn't asked customers to “come back to them.”
“They didn't do a good job of getting out of that trench at all,” Frericks said. “Your sales are still down 30% weekly, even though last summer they spent three times their planned marketing budget on Bud Light.”
Watch him talk more about this in the video below.
Mulvaney partnership 'was a mistake'
Last summer, Frericks admitted that Bud Light made a “mistake” in collaborating with Mulvaney.
“[Bud Light] It was the biggest brand in the United States because it was remarkably apolitical. “It was always about sports, it was always about music, it was about bringing people together. That's why it was wrong for them to do this campaign in the first place because they couldn't get out.”
“This campaign was a mistake,” Frericks continued. “Anheuser-Busch will not do campaigns like this moving forward. We will return to things that bring everyone together. Hopefully that will protect jobs at Anheuser-Busch, jobs at wholesalers and get this company back in the right direction.”
Frericks concluded by calling on Anheuser-Busch executives to “go back to what Bud Light has always been, which is a great beer that was cool to drink at football games and didn't necessarily become part of the discussion.”
RELATED: Ex-Anheuser-Busch Exec Finally Admits Dylan Mulvaney's Partnership with Bud Light Was a 'Mistake'
Trump and Kid Rock forgive Bud Light
However, Bud Light has managed to win some people back. Earlier this month, former President Donald Trump called on his supporters to give Bud Light another chance.
“The Bud Light ad was a mistake of epic proportions, and a heavy price has been paid for it, but Anheuser-Busch is not Woke,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
“Anheuser-Busch is a great American brand that maybe deserves a second chance?” He completed. “What do you think? Maybe, instead, we should go after those corporations looking to destroy America!”
RELATED: Trump joins Kid Rock, says conservatives should give Bud Light 'a second chance'
Singer Kid Rock, who famously photographed cases of Bud Light in response to the Mulvaney partnership, wants the brand to be tolerated.
“Do I want to put their heads under water and drown them because they made a mistake?” he said in December, according to The Tennessean. “No, I think they got the message.”
Kid Rock went on to say that it's primarily the working class, “the people who don't have a dog in the fight” who ultimately get hurt by things like the Bud Light boycott.
He added: “They made a mistake, they made a mistake.” “I'm over it.”
Do you agree with Frericks that Bud Light hasn't done enough to win back consumers, or do you think it's time to forgive and forget? Let us know in the comments section.
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