Slumping Anheuser-Busch Laying Off Hundreds

Facts

• Beermaker Anheuser-Busch, reacting to a second straight month when it wasn’t the top-selling US beer, Thursday announced it will be laying off hundreds of positions — less than 2% of its US workforce.¹
• Sales of Anheuser Busch-made Bud Light dropped for a least six weeks after the start of a boycott by conservative Americans who took issue with the beer being endorsed by Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer, in April.²
• In June, Modelo passed Bud Light as the top-selling beer in America.²
• Anheuser-Busch US Chief Executive Officer Brendan Whitworth issued a statement saying the “corporate structure changes will enable our teams to focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone.”³
• He also clarified that the layoffs would not affect brewery or warehouse staff, but would impact corporate and marketing positions in offices in St. Louis, New York, and Los Angeles.⁴

Sources: ¹USA Today, ²ABC News, ³Business Insider, and ⁴FOX News.

Narratives

• Right narrative, as provided by Breitbart. Unfortunately, hundreds of innocent workers who had nothing to do with Anheuser-Busch’s attempt to bolster its wokeness are now unemployed, but the company is paying the price for a foolish decision that upset its biggest customers. This is a woke corporate nightmare that seemingly won't end until Anheuser-Busch is gone.
• Left narrative, as provided by NBC. One way Anheuser-Busch could have stopped the bleeding in the face of the right wing’s bigoted boycott would have been to show more support for the LGBTQ+ community. But aside from some feckless words, the company has done nothing to reach out to Mulvaney, who has faced similar backlash since the promotional spot. Anheuser-Busch has managed to offend both ends of the political spectrum, and its revenue is paying the price.