OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
A video is going viral of Alissa Heinerscheid, who serves as vice president of marketing at Bud Light.
Heinerscheid’s remarks have been characterized as “trashing the beer company’s customer base.”
The beer company recently partnered with controversial left-wing transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney in order to “connect” with customers. This has sparked a massive backlash.
Heinerscheid says, “I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light. And it was, this brand is in decline, it’s been in decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand, there will be no future for Bud Light.”
Meet Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s VP of Marketing. She explains her strategy of using “inclusive” marketing to promote the brand to young people. pic.twitter.com/hFpe8YnbBc
— Catch Up (@CatchUpFeed) April 9, 2023
“So I had this super clear mandate,” Heinerscheid continued.
“Like we need to evolve and elevate this incredibly iconic brand. And what I brought to that was a belief in ok what does evolve and elevate mean? It means inclusivity, it means shifting the tone. It means having a campaign that’s truly inclusive and feels lighter and brighter and appeals to women and to men.”
“And representation is sort of at the heart of evolution,” she continued. “And we had this hangover. I mean, Bud Light had been a brand of fratty kind of out-of-touch humor, and it was really important that we had another approach,” she added.
“Brilliant strategy to hang your marketing plan on Trans appeal for 1% of the market while insulting the 45% of the women and the 54% of the men in the market,” one Twitter user said.
“Go woke and go broke but, fire the marketing exec before Bud Light lands in the graveyard of forgotten brews.”
On April 3rd, the company said, “Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics and passion points.”
“From time to time, we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public.”
