Bud Light’s snafu with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney has claimed another top Anheuser-Busch executive.
The New York Post reported on Thursday that Benoit Garbe, the beermaker’s chief marketing officer in the U.S., will step down by Dec. 31. Garbe will do so “to embark on a new chapter in his career,” the company said in a statement to the Post.
Garbe becomes the third senior Bud Light executive to depart since the controversy erupted on April 1, when Mulvaney, a biological man and TikTok influencer, sported a Bud Light can in a video that was made specially to honor Mulvaney’s “365 days of girlhood.”
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As the Tampa Free Press reported in April, Bud Light first let go marketing Vice President Alissa Heinerscheid as sales began to plummet. Shortly afterward, Heinerscheid’s boss, Daniel Blake, also stepped aside.
The company has maintained that they were given leaves of absence. But the Post reported Thursday that both are “gone gone,” according to a regional marketing exec for the company.
As the Mulvaney controversy raged over the summer, Bud Light saw its sales and prestige enter a free fall.
It lost its slot as America’s best-selling beer to the Mexican brand Modelo. As the Free Press reported in July, Bud Light fell to 14th among the most popular beers in America, trailing the likes of Pabst Blue Ribbon and Miller Genuine Draft.
Bud Light was also forced to ax hundreds of jobs in its breweries as sales dropped.
Bud Light’s decline was so severe that some began calling on Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth to resign.
As of September, Bud Light’s year-over-year sales were down 26.9% in dollars and 30.3% in volume, the Post reported.
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At one point before then, analysts asserted that the brand’s value had plunged by at least $27 billion since the Mulvaney episode started.
As for Garbe, Whitworth said his departure was part of a restructuring plan.
Whitworth told the Post: “This week we announced key changes to our US leadership team that reduce layers within our organization and better enable our top commercial leaders to drive our business and legacy forward.”
“These senior leadership changes will accelerate our return to growth as we continue to focus on what we do best — brewing great beer for everyone and earning our place in moments that matter.”
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