Bud Light Ads Are Popping Up in China After Dylan Mulvaney Controversy

Photos of Bud Light advertisements in China have been shared on social media, following the beer brand's dramatic dip in popularity in the U.S.

Starting in April, Bud Light has been subjected to a relentless backlash for a small branded partnership it had with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. In a video posted to Instagram on April 1, Mulvaney said the beer brand had sent her a can with her face on it to commemorate her 365 days living as a woman.

Mulvaney's partnership with Bud Light drew condemnation and boycott calls from several conservative figures, including U.S. Representative Dan Crenshaw, a Texas Republican. Musicians Kid Rock, Travis Tritt and John Rich were also among those who expressed aversions to the beer brand after the collaboration.

Over the past several weeks, a number of social-media users have also shared photos and videos of unsold Bud Light on store shelves and at venues, in a bid to illustrate the purported success of their boycott of the beer brand.

Since the calls for a boycott began almost three months ago, Bud Light has seen a rapid drop-off in domestic sales. Revenue remains consistently below what it was the same time last year. The company has also lost its crown as America's most popular beer, with Mexican rival Modelo Especial now in the top spot.

Conservative writer and podcaster Daniel Horowitz recently took to Twitter to share images of Bud Light posters. They depicted the animated faces of people looking elated as they held pint glasses filled with the beer.

Horowitz, who is a senior editor at conservative news outlet TheBlaze, captioned the pair of images: "A listener of mine who lives in China notes that he's never seen Bud Light ads in China before. The last few weeks they are everywhere."

The post was met with an influx of comments from people who accused Bud Light of venturing into China because of plummeting sales in the U.S. However, others pointed out that Bud Light has already been embraced by Chinese consumers.

In March, Reuters said that Budweiser Brewing Co APAC, Asia's largest beer company by sales, had announced plans to expand into more cities across China with its premium products as it rebounded from COVID-19 restrictions.

Sales of the beer saw an expansion after China in December 2022 dropped its strict zero-COVID policy. This gravely affected business at bars and restaurants over the almost three years it was enforced. Budweiser said that its overall China volumes fell by 3 percent last year as a result.

"(In China) this quarter, we really see strong signals for recovery in the market which is fully opening," Jan Craps, co-chair and chief executive of Budweiser APAC, said after the company reported annual results, per Reuters.

The Asia-Pacific unit of Bud Light parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev shared plans to boost the number of Chinese cities where it sells at least 1 million liters of its premium Budweiser brand. "We believe in the next 10 years there is big growth potential here," Craps said of the Chinese market.

In mid-June, a former Anheuser-Busch employee in the U.S. said in an interview with Tomi Lahren that the brewing company deliberately sabotaged Bud Light in an attempt to cut costs. The interview came weeks after conservative commentator Lahren said "mass layoffs" were in the pipeline at Bud Light as a result of the backlash.

Newsweek has contacted representatives of Anheuser-Busch via email for comment.

A range of other brands, including Target, Nike, Adidas and Barstool Sports, have also been at the center of a furor over LGBTQ+ marketing. This comes at a time when anti-transgender sentiment appears to be growing in the United States, with bills targeting transgender people sweeping through Republican state legislatures.