Dylan Mulvaney's Bud Light Partnership Is Over—Marketing Strategist

Bud Light's partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney is unlikely to continue, a marketing strategist has said, as both continue to deal with an ongoing backlash and calls for a boycott.

Emma Ferrara, chief business development officer at Viral Nation, told Newsweek that "right now, the partnership, I don't see it continuing." However, she noted that there could be "an avenue to explore" how to continue having a business relationship with Mulvaney that does not provoke outrage rather than "putting her on the outside, and just cutting the partnership."

Since Mulvaney posted to her millions of social media followers on April 2 that Bud Light had sent her a personalized can with her face on to commemorate 365 days of being a woman, the brand has faced accusations of alienating its traditional audience. The row has crystallized into a broader debate about the acceptance of transgender individuals in public life.

Following online boycott calls, supporters of Kari Lake, the Donald Trump-backed GOP candidate for Arizona Governor in 2022, refused to drink the beer at an open bar at a rally in Iowa. A bar owner in Kentucky said he had noticed the drink sparking rows between patrons and other licensed venues have withdrawn the beer from sale.

The partnership has drawn public displays of anger. Musician Kid Rock took a gun to several cases of Bud Light in a viral video, while a Republican state senator in Missouri posted a video of himself smashing a can with a baseball bat outside his state's Capitol building.

The debate over the partnership has also attracted commentary from many prominent figures, including Donald Trump Jr. and Marjorie Taylor Greene, as well as celebrities such as Joe Rogan and Caitlyn Jenner. Even the White House has waded in on the controversy.

Earlier this week, it emerged that Bud Light had seen a 17 percent decline in sales revenue since the outrage began, with the volume of beer sales down 21 percent for the week ending April 15. Conservatives who had called for a boycott of the brand saw it as a sign their actions were working.

On April 14, Brendan Whitworth, CEO of parent company Anheuser-Busch, issued an official statement, saying: "We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer."

Despite the visceral reaction of many to the partnership, Ferrara said she believed that the disparate groups Bud Light was attempting to appeal to were not mutually exclusive, arguing that "it's important that the brand has the opportunity to go beyond its core consumers and appeal to everyone."

A food branding expert previously suggested to Newsweek the partnership could have been a ploy to appeal to other markets around the world.

However, Ferrara said it was "important to really just ensure that the partnership is relevant, authentic and credible in regards to the brand's needs."

Noting the White House's claims that executives at the company had received death threats over the controversy, Ferrara, who coordinates partnerships between leading brands and top influencers, said Mulvaney was "probably receiving a lot of backlash" as well.

Mulvaney has not posted to her 10.8 million TikTok followers since April 7, and has made few public comments about the row since it began.

Ferrara commented that the partnership with Bud Light had likely been "a big step for her" and that Mulvaney was "unsure what to do."

"The backlash may seem overwhelming to any person," she added. "You could imagine being in her shoes, and having all of that come at you could be a lot to digest. But she has chosen the path of being a creator and having her life be on social."

Influencers base their livelihoods on exposure, and one thing that could be said about the backlash against the partnership is that it has made many more people aware of Mulvaney. Amid her relative silence on the matter, transgender activists might question why she was not capitalizing on the controversy more to raise awareness of the stigma they face.

"You have to always keep in mind with influencers and creators, they're also humans," Ferrara responded. "So as much as they're a business and they have such a heavy weight and sway, I think they're people first."

When it comes to influencers choosing which brands to partner with, she argued they should consider more than just the money.

"It's important that there's more thought into the partnership into the brand and the 'why,'" Ferarra said. "Why is this relevant for me? And what does this mean for me as a creator? And does this brand feel authentic to me? Does it feel credible If I'm representing the brand? And does it feel like something that I really believe in? And do their kind of values align with my values?"

"I think that's how, as a creator, every creator should look at it from that perspective," she added.

Newsweek approached a representative for Mulvaney and Anheuser-Busch via email for comment on Thursday.