Second Bud Light marketing exec placed on leave after Dylan Mulvaney backlash
A second Bud Light senior marketing executive has been placed on leave following backlash and calls for a boycott over the brand’s recent partnership with popular transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, according to a report.
Daniel Blake, who oversees marketing for Anheuser-Busch’s mainstream brands, stepped back from his role Sunday, according to the Wall Street Journal.
It was reported Friday that another executive — the brewer’s vice president of marketing who was behind the campaign, Alissa Heinerscheid — was taking a leave of absence.
“Given the circumstances, Alissa has decided to take a leave of absence, which we support,” an Anheuser-Busch spokeswoman told the Journal. “Daniel has also decided to take a leave of absence.”
People familiar with the matter told the Journal that the decision to take leave was not voluntary.
The intense backlash began after Bud Light partnered with Mulvaney, a popular transgender influencer with over 10 million TikTok followers who rose to fame chronicling her gender transition on social media.
After she finished her “365 Days of Girlhood” video series, the beer brand sent Mulvaney custom-made cans featuring her face to help promote its March Madness contest.
In a video shared on Instagram, the content creator is dressed like Audrey Hepburn’s character in “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” as she cracks open a Bud Light can and takes a sip.
“This month I celebrated my 365 days of womanhood and Bud Light sent me possibly the best gift ever — a can with my face on it,” Mulvaney said in the video noting her milestone. A second video for the campaign featured the influencer drinking a can of Bud Light in her bathtub.
A day before Mulvaney shared news of the partnership, Heinerscheid was interviewed on the podcast “Make Yourself At Home,” where she discussed her work in transforming the Bud Light brand from one marked by “fratty” and “out of touch” humor to one that embraces inclusivity.
“I’m a businesswoman, I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light, and it was ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand, there will be no future for Bud Light,‘” Heinerscheid said.
Despite the growing backlash from the partnership with Mulvaney, Bud Light initially defended the move before offering a half-hearted apology to its loyal customers last week.
Heinerscheid has led the brand since June. It’s unclear if her replacement, Todd Allen, the global vice president of Budweiser, would be in the role permanently.
A replacement has not been announced for Blake, who has worked at Anheuser-Busch for nearly nine years.
