A former Anheuser-Busch executive spoke with Newsweek on Wednesday and explained why the current boycott of Bud Light has been so devastating to the beer brand's sales.
"Anheuser-Busch did not understand their customer base and kind of also where their customer base is, in terms of what messaging they want to see from Bud Light," Anson Frericks, the former president of operations for Anheuser-Busch, told Newsweek.
In April, a boycott of Bud Light was sparked by conservative voices after they beer company partnered with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer and activist. Bud Light and its parent company, Anheuser-Busch faced a wave of criticism for its partnership and over the past several months, the beer has seen a decline in sales, despite offering multiple different promotions and discounts for Bud Light.
Frericks went on to explain to Newsweek that the reason the current boycott of Bud Light has been so successful is mainly due to two reasons.
"Boycotts typically work when there are, one, easily accessible products, similar to another company. So, beer is one of the more monetized products out there, the only thing that differentiates Bud Light, Coors Light, and Miller Lite, is the brand," Frericks told Newsweek. "Everywhere you have Bud Light, you also have Miller Lite and Coors Light...it's incredibly easy for consumers to switch. There's no real switching cost that's out there."
When comparing the current Bud Light boycott to other boycotts, Frericks explained that one example is when people called for boycotts of the NFL when players kneeled during the National Anthem. However, unlike beer, "there's no other alternative to the NFL," Frericks said.
"Secondarily, consumers feel that they will keep the boycott going when they feel like they're having an impact," Frericks said. "So every single week, this news cycle continues to kick off where you're seeing the effects of this boycott, with sales being down 25 percent, 28 percent, 30 percent, every single week. So, therefore it gives consumers the ability to say like, 'Wow, I'm really having an impact.'"
Recent sales data provided to Newsweek by Bump Williams Consulting from Nielsen IQ shows that there was a 28 percent decline in Bud Light sales for the week ending on July 1, when compared to the same week in 2022.
Frericks currently serves as the co-founder and president of the financial service company, Strive. Frericks served as the president of operations for Anheuser-Busch until March 2022 when he left on his own terms.
Frericks also told Newsweek that he was not surprised by the decline in sales amid the ongoing boycott.
"I'm not surprised because I think that people have just made a choice that they're just not going to buy Bud Light regardless of what the price is," Frericks told Newsweek. "Bud Light now just becomes the whole topic of the party and just becomes a political statement if you have Bud Light that a lot of people just don't want to engage with when you're just trying to have nice time out."
Newsweek reached out to Anheuser-Busch via email for comment.
