Imports from Mexico have displaced Americans at the top of the heap — and no, this is not because of President Joe Biden’s open borders policy. At least not yet.
Rather, thank Dylan Mulvaney.
According to Newsmax on Friday, Modelo Especial, a Mexican beer, has replaced Bud Light as the best-selling beer in America.
Bud Light, which is facing a fierce and sustained backlash from conservatives for its ad campaign featuring Mulvaney, a transgender social media influencer, racked up $297 million in sales during May.
Modelo Especial, by contrast, posted $333 million last month.
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Modelo’s year-over-year sales spiked almost 16% in May, while Bud Light, whose losing streak is now entering a third month, fell by nearly 23%.
Ironically, Anheuser Busch, Bud Light’s parent company, has owned most of the global makers of Modelo Especial since 2013. But according to Newsweek, federal regulators forced the company to unload Modelo’s U.S. holdings to New York-based Constellation Brands to maintain competition in America’s beer market.
“We thought that would take a little longer,” Bill Newlands, the CEO of Constellation, told Newsweek. “We’ve been very fortunate that, that’s gone a little quicker than we had anticipated. But what a great position to be in on the beer side.”
Bud Light has been battered in the beer market since April 1, when it was revealed the company had produced cans featuring Mulvaney’s image. The company made them to help Mulvaney celebrate his first year of “girlhood.”
In the news : Bud Light Still Sinking Amid Mulvaney Backlash
Since then, social media posts have shown retailers offering to give away Bud Light just to unload it, while singers popular with conservatives, like Kid Rock and Travis Tritt, have disowned the brand. The satire website Babylon Bee once joked that men drinking Cosmopolitans were mocking others who drank Bud Light.
One analyst suggested Bud Light may never recover from this self-inflicted damage.
According to Newsmax, Dave Williams, vice president of analytics and insights at the firm Bump Williams Consulting, noted, “Unless Bud Light starts to experience a serious course correction in terms of performance, which can only come from consumers finding their way back into the brand family, then that firm grip on the No. 1 rank by year-end loosens a bit more every week.”
“Companies invest a lot into being front and center and top of mind during this [summer] season, as there is only so much floor space to allocate, consumer money to spend and beer occasions to fulfill,” Williams added. “If a brand misses those opportunities, then that is almost impossible to fully recover that lost potential over the balance of the calendar year.”
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