Bud Light Sales Slip Another 2.4 Ppt

Bud Light sales in the week ended June 17 weree down 28.5% from a year earlier, according to Bump Williams Consulting and Nielsen IQ.  A week earlier they were down 26.8%, so in just one week Bud Light sales fell 2.4 percentage points.  

The trigger for the decline appears to be a short video featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney holding a can of Bud Light with her picture on it.

Other brands in the Anheuser-Busch portfolio also took a hit:  Budweiser was down 12.3% from a year earlier, and Michelob Ultra fell 4%. Busch Light sales fell 8.1%.

Bud Light's drinkers, for the most part, didn't switch to non=alc brand.  Rather, they shifted to otherbrands.  Modelo, for instance, saw salesrise 8.6% in the June 17 week.  Miller Lite was up 16%, Coors Light up 21.8% and Yuengling Lager up 25.1%.

This week-by-week reporting of the decline in A-B brand sales and the gains for some of its competitors is very exciting of course, but it's worth remembering that Bud Light remains the most popular beer brand in the U.S., even though Modelo has outsold it on a weekly basis.

Consumers calling for A-B to ditch Bud Light are going to be very disappointed.  It's just not going to happen. Bud Light generates too much in sales and profits, but even if it became much smaller, it would still be profitable. Also:  No executive is going to want to admit a mob on the internet is dictating his product decisions.