Foster's rebounds in the United States amid Bud Light trans TikTok influencer boycott

Foster's experienced something unexpected after Bud Light’s trans influencer marketing campaign with Dylan Mulvaney.

Foster's may be “Australian for beer”, but the brand saw a sudden turnaround in sales amid an industry-wide halo effect of being “American for not Bud Light”.

As brewer Anheuser-Busch saw Bud Light sales decline up to 17 per cent in the immediate weeks after its trans influencer marketing campaign with Dylan Mulvaney, the company’s closest competitor Molson Coors saw a seismic increase of 18 per cent for its mainstay, Coors Light, over the same period.

Molson Coors’ “super-premium” brand Foster's, meanwhile, ended a year-over-year sales decline in the first quarter with a small increase in sales for 2023, according to data from market research NielsenIQ.

Foster's declining sales in the US rebounded amid the Bud Light boycott. Picture: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

While Foster’s sales for the week of April 15 increased a modest 0.2 per cent across US supermarkets and liquor stores, it comes after 15 weeks of declining year-over-year sales compared to the start of 2022.

“Foster's in general is down 1.4 per cent year to date across all off-premise dollar sales,” said Dave Williams of beverage industry analyst firm Bump Williams Consulting.

“What I’m seeing from this is sharper declines year over year, but in recent weeks we’ve seen the trend stabilise and climb back up.”

The NielsenIQ figures are direct sales data from stores across the United States, which account for up to 80 per cent of all beer sales in the country. The remaining 20-odd per cent of beer sales come from bars and clubs.

Molson Coors did not respond to requests for comment on sales of its brands, including Foster's, in the wake of an American-wide boycott of the industry-leading Bud Light.

Mr Williams said that it’s too early to conclude from the first three weeks of the boycott whether sales will remain in decline for Bud Light, which leads the industry at about US $80 million in sales per week.

Dylan Mulvaney and Kid Rock are at the centre of a Bud Light row

Coors Light, by comparison, is a close second at around an average of $50 million a week. Foster's, meanwhile, moves about $1.1 million per week in the US but at a higher unit cost than the budget light beers at the centre of the trans controversy.

Anheuser-Busch launched its controversial Mulvaney campaign on April Fools’ Day to celebrate “365 Days of Girlhood”. By April 8, a week later, Bud Light was down by 7 per cent and then 17 per cent the following week, April 15.

Coors Light recorded a near-identical increase of 11 per cent and 18 per cent over the same two weeks.

“There’s a clear disruption to the norm,” Mr Williams said. “My gut tells me this will stabilise.

A video of Kid Rock shooting cartons of quickly went viral after Bud Light’s trans influencer marketing campaign, launched on April 1.

“Everyone’s aware of what’s going on but it’s hard to gauge how consumers will respond over the long term. It’s still too big a machine to fail, and I think Bud Light is a strong brand.”

Bud Light is reportedly planning a major marketing blitz in an attempt to stem the bleeding sales spurred from its partnership with the highly-followed TikTok user.

In the immediate aftermath, prominent American conservative figures like Kid Rock called for a boycott of the beer, with a video of the rapper shooting cartons of Bud Light quickly going viral.

Anheuser-Busch executives held meetings this week to assure beer distributors they would “spend heavily” on marketing the Bud Light brand going into spring and summer, Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights, wrote in a report to clients.

Sales leaked faster than these bullet riddled cans of Bud Light.

A northeast-based distributor added to The New York Post that the company promised distributors there would be “an improved screening process before any marketing hits the public”.

“Executives will have to go through a more rigorous screening process,” said the distributor, who cited briefings from Bud execs during Zoom meetings this month.

It comes after Bud Light’s vice president of marketing Alissa Heinerscheid and her boss, Daniel Blake, were put on non-voluntary leave by parent company Anheuser-Busch.

“Given the circumstances, Alissa has decided to take a leave of absence which we support,” an Anheuser-Busch spokeswoman said in an email. “Daniel has also decided to take a leave of absence.”

On Tuesday, Anheuser-Busch began distributing talking points to wholesalers to dispel their customer’s “confusion” and “misinformation”, according to Beer Business Daily.

“This was one single can given to one social media influencer,” Anheuser-Busch said in the letter, adding, “this can was not made for production or sale to the general public” nor was it “a formal campaign or advertisement.”

Originally published as Foster's rebounds in the United States amid Bud Light trans TikTok influencer boycott