HSBC, one of the world’s largest banks, downgraded the stock of Anheuser-Busch InBev this week amid controversy over Bud Light’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Bank analysts downgraded the stock to “hold” status, which means investors should neither sell nor purchase the stock, CNBC reported.
In a note, HSBC analyst Carlos Laboy, managing director for the global beverage sector at the bank, justified the downgrade by questioning the ability of Anheuser-Busch InBev executives to understand their consumer base.
“Is ABI’s leadership getting the brand culture transformation right? It’s mixed. At Ambev, we think the answer is ‘yes;’ in the US, we think it’s ‘no,'” Laboy wrote. “The way this Bud Light crisis came about a month ago, management’s response to it and the loss of unprecedented volume and brand relevance raises many questions.”
He further explained:
Why did its US leadership underestimate the risk of pushback given the recent experience of other firms? Is A-B hiring the best people to grow the brands and gauge risk? If Budweiser and Bud Light are iconic American ideas that have long brought consumers together, why did these marketers fail to invite new consumers without alienating the core base of the firm’s largest brand?
Anheuser-Busch is facing a host of problems in the U.S.
Not only are Bud Light sales tanking — and even spilling over to other popular Anheuser-Busch brands — while competitors Coors Light and Miller Light benefit, but Anheuser-Busch is facing pressure from the LGBT community to support LGBT causes.
But Anheuser-Busch InBev executives are trying to distance their company from the controversy.
On a call last week, Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Michel Doukeris sought to clarify that the Mulvaney sponsorship was not a formal marketing “campaign.”
“We need to continue to clarify the facts — that was one can, one post, one influencer, and not a campaign,” he said.
I find the Bud controversy very funny. I have, however, a different question: young Mr Mulvaney also seems to advertise Tampax. If true, where does he put them? Under the sports bra?
They insulted their customer base by calling them obsolete and no longer relevant and then embraced the tranny culture which is probably less than .01% of the population. When they tried to reverse this huge mistake, the insulted the perverts who are now pouring Busch products into the gutter. Now Anheuser-Bush has nowhere to push their putrid piss juice.
AB went after the 10 million followers of Mulvaney. Period. It was all about the almighty dollar. The marketing exec, Alissa Heinerscheid who lead the charge was in over her head and followed a fad- base and not the fan base. She clearly did not understand who their main audience was. The whole thing was a marketing fiasco and a demonstration of incompetence at its core. Alissa Heinerscheid had the audacity to brag she was the first woman to lead such a huge brand. Seems like it was a first time very expensive mistake by AB.
Dear Mikey and other WOKE AB execs: you should have thought of that BEFORE you hired Mulvaney! Too late now.
Inbev says it was1 can and not a campaign. Well when the 1st transgender became prominent it was just 1. When the 1st prominent individual in Germany supported Hitler, it was just 1 supporter. It’s not just 1 anymore, and they are destroying America with their liberal woke narrative, but they are about .5% of of citizens. If it had not been for the Bud Light boycott, trust me, there was much more coming behind that just 1 can, and would have turned into a massive campaign. They destroyed their company, and it wasn’t necessary. Their marketing department thought the LGBTQ++ had acquired enough momentum that would cause conservatives, their market base, would just roll over and play dead while they trampled all over the moral values of the country. Well, that backfired, and now they are gaslighting everyone trying to say they were not going further with this stunt. Inbev is not even an American company anymore, but they are trying to change things from a foriegn boardroom. So cry me a river Doukeris, as you go broke from trying to make everybody woke.