Billy Busch and the Art of Self-Promotion
The headlines are pretty clear: Billy Busch Sr., one of the heirs to the Anheuser-Busch fortune volunteers to buy back company from current owners" (FoxNews), "wants to buy back Bud Light brand" (NewsNation), "Anheuser-Busch heire Billy Busch to buy back Bud Light after Dylon Mulvaney campaign causes $27 billion loss" (Daily Mail), and "Busch heir wants to buy Bud Light brand. 'Sell it back to the Busch family."
Except that's not exactly what he said. This is what he said: He would be "first in line to buy back Bud Light and make the brand great again." He didn't put a dollar offer on the table, but things would be different under his ownership, he promised. For one thing, he wouldn't ignore the "fratty drinker," which a former Bud Light market said the firm was trying to accomplish.
When his family ran things, Busch said, A-B forged bonds with its customers, including distributors and liquor store owners. 'They knew who their drinkers were. They were with the bar owners and the restaurant owners and the liquor store owners and talking to these people day in and day out,' he said.
Apparently he hasn't bothered to convey his offer to A-B InBev brass. Or, if he has, they haven't filed a report of the offer with the Securities & Exchange Commission.
What we have here is a classic case of self-promotion. Billy Busch has the name and, while he never worked for A-B, he has had an MTV reality show, closed his Kraftig beer brand in 2019 and pleaded guilty to a municipal peace disturbance charge aft er allegedly grabbing and pushing a sixth grader during a fight between his son and the boy.
Oh, yes, he has written a book, "Family Reins: The Heartbreaking Fall of an American Dynasty" that went on sale this month. And he says he will open Busch Family Brewing & Distilling to the public on weekends starting Aug. 25.
That gives Billy two reasons to self-promote. And there's no better way than to set up a bit of a conflict, a David vs. Goliath scenario.
ABI hasn't responded to Billy Busch's statement. But PETA has. "PETA hopes Billy Busch does buy back Anheuser-Busch so that he can end the mutilations of the Budweiser Clydesdales. As PETA revealed, Anheuser-Busch amputates the Budweiser Clydesdales tailbones for purely cosmetic reasons, a painful disfiguration that involves severing part of the spine, means the horses can never fight off biting insects, and impairs their balance forever. Anyone who knows horses, as Mr. Busch does, would never allow this abuse to continue," PETA Senior Vice President Kathy Guillermo said.