Beer company Bud Light is taking heat for its most recent commercial, which all sides of the political spectrum have criticized.
A new Bud Light commercial titled “Backyard Grunts with Travis Kelce” debuted, in which the star tight end for the Kansas City Chiefs can be seen groaning among a bunch of men as they popped open a cold one.
Bud Light went from having a man who pretends to be a girl as a spokesperson for their beer to an ad where men are depicted as old and out of shape, making noises when they sit or get out of a chair.
There are now 2,187 comments, 256 likes, and almost 11,000 dislikes on the video’s YouTube page.
After an advertising campaign in April featuring transgender social media celebrity Dylan Mulvaney, Bud Light became a focus of a boycott movement. Since then, Bud Light sales have plummeted, and the company’s market value has fallen, putting pressure on Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch InBev.
According to reports, sales of Bud Light were down 28.5% year-over-year for mid-June based on data compiled by NielsenIQ. Sales of other Anheuser-Busch products, such as Michelob Ultra and Budweiser, are also down from the previous year.
Anheuser-Busch dropped almost $18 billion in market worth between April 3 and July 3, falling from $133.68 billion to $115.38 billion.
The stock price dropped by almost 14% over this period.
According to a note by Deutsche Bank analyst Mitch Collett, Anheuser-Busch’s recent underperformance signals a “permanent reduction” in the company’s operations in the United States, as reported by Barron’s.
The marketing fiasco has also cost Bud Light its top spot in the U.S. beer market.
Ardagh Group, a key supplier of Bud Light located in Luxembourg, is closing two glass-bottling operations in Louisiana and North Carolina due to falling demand for the beverage.
Mr. Mulvaney has publicly criticized Bud Light for ditching the transgender activist while left-leaning media have blamed the corporation for trying to cater to its conservative consumers.
