Photo of Bud Light Left on Shelves During July 4 Weekend Goes Viral

A photo of Bud Light left on the shelves at stores during the Fourth of July weekend has gone viral on social media on Sunday as the beer company continues to face an ongoing boycott.

The photo comes as Bud Light and its parent company Anheuser-Busch continue to face criticism and a boycott after partnering with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer and activist. In April, the beer brand supplied Mulvaney with a customized Bud Light can that had her face on it to promote her one-year anniversary of transitioning, with Mulvaney showcasing the can in a video posted to her Instagram.

The row over transgender brand ambassadors is symbolic of a wider debate about the inclusion of transgender women in female issues and spaces. Some say transgender women should be treated the same as other women, while others say they are different and that hard-won women's rights must be protected.

Responding to a tweet from Bud Light on Sunday, conservative commentator Tim Pool shared a photo of numerous Bud Light and Budweiser cases left on the shelves at a Walmart store in "Charles Town." The tweet, as of early Monday afternoon, by Pool has over 660,000 views, more than 750 retweets and over 8,000 likes. Pool currently has over 1.7 million followers on Twitter.

Twitter user @D0meztikM30ws shared a similar photo on Sunday replying to Pool and wrote, "Noticed the same thing at my hood mart!!"

Meanwhile, numerous conservatives have spoken out against Bud Light's partnership with Mulvaney and called for their followers to purchase other beer brands.

As the boycott has continued, Bud Light has seen a slight decline in sales. The latest tracking figures by Nielsen IQ, provided to Newsweek by Bump Williams Consulting, show that in the week ending June 10, Bud Light sales volume—the number of units of beer sold—was 30.3 percent lower than in the same week in 2022, the largest such drop since the week ending April 1.

"Bud light is just flying off the shelves," Twitter user @BADatpokeman wrote late last month, sharing photos of many Bud Light cases at a store.

Meanwhile, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth spoke with CBS Mornings last week about the ongoing controversy and said in part that "there's a big social conversation taking place right now, and big brands are right in the middle of it and it's not just our industry or Bud Light."

Mulvaney also spoke out against Bud Light last week in a video on Instagram and said, "I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me but they never did and for months now I've been scared to leave my house...for a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse in my opinion than not hiring a trans person at all."

Anheuser-Busch responded to Mulvaney's comments and told Newsweek in a statement: "As we've said, we remain committed to the programs and partnerships we have forged over decades with organizations across a number of communities, including those in the LGBTQ+ community. The privacy and safety of our employees and our partners is always our top priority."

Newsweek reached out to Anheuser-Busch via email on Monday for comment.

Update 7/3/2023, 2:07 p.m. ET: This article has been updated with additional information.