AB InBev's US revenue fell 10.5% in the second quarter of 2023, and the company put it down mainly to falling Bud Light volumes. It started with one sponsored Instagram post. In the same quarter, the company's North America revenue fell by about $395 million.
This is the clearest public example of social media backlash showing up in a company's accounts. It is one of the six cases in our Response Gap research.
Before: the safest brand in American beer
Bud Light had been the best-selling beer in the United States since 2001. It was a mass-market brand built to offend no one.
The spark: 1 April 2023
On 1 April 2023, creator Dylan Mulvaney posted an Instagram video promoting a Bud Light contest. It showed a personalised can the brand had sent her. It was one small influencer deal among many.
The spread: days, not weeks
Within days, high-profile critics posted boycott videos and the story jumped from Instagram to TV news. Supporters of Mulvaney were then angered by how the brand handled the backlash. The brand was being criticised from both sides.
The response: a one-line comment, then a statement that said little
In the first days, the company's only public comment was a spokesperson's line that the can was "a gift to celebrate a personal milestone".
On 14 April, Anheuser-Busch chief executive Brendan Whitworth issued a statement: "We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer." It did not name Mulvaney or the boycott. Coverage at the time noted that it satisfied neither side.
By then the story was no longer about a contest. It was about where the brand stood, and the brand had not said.
The cost
- May 2023: Modelo Especial overtook Bud Light as the top-selling beer in US stores. In the four weeks to 3 June, Modelo had 8.4% of US store beer sales to Bud Light's 7.3%.
- Q2 2023 (reported 3 August): AB InBev's US revenue fell 10.5%. Sales to wholesalers fell 15% and sales to retailers fell 14%. The company said the fall in retail sales was "primarily due to the volume decline of Bud Light".
- North America: revenue fell by about $395 million in the quarter. That figure includes Canada.
Group revenue still grew 7.2% (organic growth), thanks to other markets. That is the only reason this was a bad quarter and not a crisis for the whole company.
Percentage decline. Source: AB InBev Q2 2023 results.
What the data would have shown
Every warning sign here was public and visible within 48 hours: the volume of posts, the boycott videos and the tone of the comments. None of it needed inside information.
The lesson is not "never work with creators". It is that for two weeks the company said almost nothing about the issue, and the gap was filled by people with stronger opinions.
Three lessons for any brand
- Know within hours, not weeks. The backlash was visible on social media long before it showed in sales data.
- Silence is a position. A statement that avoids the issue reads as having no answer.
- Watch both sides. Bud Light lost customers who disliked the post, and then customers who disliked the retreat.