Bud Light continues to suffer after their controversial brand partnership with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Earlier this week, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth had an awkward appearance on CBS This Morning in which he refused to call the collaboration that has resulted in billions of dollars in lost market share a mistake. He also did not defend the decision.
That appearance seemed to be a bridge too far for Mulvaney. After three months of staying tight-lipped on the topic, the TikTok star spoke out on Thursday. In a social media post, Mulvaney claimed that the company never reached out in the wake of the controversy. On Friday’s show, Megyn was joined by Chicks on the Right co-hosts Miriam Weaver and Amy Jo Clark to discuss Mulvaney’s comments and slam the cowardly actions of Whitworth.
Dylan Mulvaney Speaks Out
After months of silence, we finally know how Mulvaney feels about the ill-fated partnership with Bud Light:
“I took a brand deal with a company that I loved and I posted a sponsored video to my page and it must have been a slow news week because the way that this ad got blown up, you would have thought I was like on a billboard, or on a TV commercial, or something major. But no, it was just an Instagram video what transpired from that video was more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined. And I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did. And for months now I’ve been scared to leave my house. I’ve been ridiculed in public. I’ve been followed. And I have felt a loneliness that I wouldn’t wish on anyone for a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse in my opinion than not hiring a trans person at all.”
Megyn had little patience for Mulvaney’s victimhood. “So Dylan is the victim and we should feel sorry for Dylan,” she asked. But she agreed that Bud Light is cowardly. “He’s not wrong about that – they were complete cowards,” she noted. “With respect to Dylan, with respect to the rest of us who have been complaining, they’ve been trying to skirt this middle line which has been a fail; we all see it’s a fail; and that’s why we remain angry.”
Bud Light’s ‘Brand Deal’
In yet another example of ‘get woke, go broke,’ Clark lamented how these major corporations try to remain relevant and in-touch for their consumers. Bud Light’s decision to prioritize the former over the latter backfired. “They latch on to this notion of the rainbow, pride, and everything, and on July 1 it all goes away,” she said. “They’re basically using all these people to make money.”
Based on the most recent post, Mulvaney didn’t seem to get that memo. “He’s shocked that they weren’t holding his hand and like being his BFF,” Clark noted. “It’s very telling of just the whole [LGTBQ] movement in general and how these corporations will use these people to make money. It’s like, ‘Welcome to corporate America, sweetheart.’”
A Lack of Leadership
During Whitworth’s sit down with CBS This Morning, co-host Tony Dokoupil repeatedly pressed Whitworth on the partnership with Mulvaney. “Bud Light has supported LGBTQ since 1998,” Whitworth said. “So, that’s 25 years, and as we’ve said from the beginning we’ll continue to support the communities and organizations that we’ve supported for decades.”
It was one of many dodges from the embattled CEO. “The CEO of Anheuser-Busch has been such a weenie about this whole issue,” Weaver said. “It wasn’t just Dylan making an Instagram video. This was a sponsored deal, and now he’s coming out and he’s being so wishy-washy.”
Megyn was similarly unimpressed with the former Marine’s lack of accountability. “Take a damn position: Are you sorry you did it? Are you now? Whose side are you on,” she asked. “I would love to get this guy in my clutches, so I can put it to him like, ‘Give me a damn answer, sir!’”
While the boycott efforts against Bud Light have been successful, Weaver said there is no winner in this situation. “Now, everyone is mad at them – Dylan has made his fans all mad at Anheuser-Busch… all the right-wingers are mad, everybody’s mad,” she concluded. “I suspect now that Dylan has released that video, we’re going to see another tumble in the stock of Bud Light, and they deserve it.”
You can check out Megyn’s full interview with Chicks on the Right by tuning in to episode 579 on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you like to listen. And don’t forget that you can catch The Megyn Kelly Show live on SiriusXM’s Triumph (channel 111) weekdays from 12pm to 2pm ET.