Bud Light’s promotion of transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney continues to polarize Americans as calls to boycott the beer juggernaut continue, but a longtime public relations guru insists history will remember the campaign favorably.
"I don't just think it will be good for Bud Light. It will be good for Bud Light. I have a 30-year history with the exact same issue," Ericho Communications CEO Eric Yaverbaum told Fox News Digital.
"I think it was a wonderful move," Yaverbaum continued. "I think the backlash will go away and people will remember them forever for doing this. And I bet they sell more beer."
Anheuser-Busch has been hit with an onslaught of criticism after a polarizing decision to celebrate Mulvaney’s first year of "girlhood." Yaverbaum, who authored "Public Relations for Dummies," believes the backlash is similar to what furniture retailer Ikea faced in 1994 when an ad featured a same-sex couple in a commercial for a dining room table. The ad is believed to be the first time a gay couple was featured in a mainstream commercial, and calls to boycott Ikea quickly followed. Yaverbaum oversaw Ikea public relations at the time.
Many Americans were outraged, while conservatives, Catholic groups and others called for the company’s demise. But a Los Angeles Times reporter called it "groundbreaking," and trade magazine Advertising Age called it "one small step for Madison Avenue, but… one giant leap for the gay community."
Yaverbaum worked on Ikea’s response to the backlash when his former agency handled public relations for the retailer. He recalled sitting in the office of Ikea’s chairman the morning after the controversial ad first ran, and executives couldn’t believe the uproar as "blistering" letters poured in. The commercial turned into a national news story and Yaverbaum was tasked with putting out the fire, but Ikea didn't apologize.
"Everybody said the same thing. Then 30 years later, it did not hurt Ikea one iota," he said. "People remember that very, very well. And if I had to bet, I would say that it sold significantly more furniture than what it lost for all the, you know, uproar at the time. Now we have all the uproar again."
Backlash to Bud Light has been significant, starting with many pondering if the pact was some sort of April Fool’s gag. In the days since, country music singer John Rich said he pulled cases the beer from his Nashville bar, conservative rocker Kid Rock used several Bud Light cases for target practice in a viral video, Anheuser-Busch distributors in rural areas have expressed concern and the beer juggernaut’s value plummeted.
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Yaverbaum said the blowback on Ikea was equally "enormous" during the Ikea news cycle, but he feels history is simply repeating itself.
"Absolutely nobody remembers that anymore. What people do remember about Ikea was that they, you know, they took a stance which has become favorable," he said.
Mulvaney, who gained prominence when given an opportunity to interview President Biden about LGBTQ issues last year, has more than 10 million followers on TikTok and 1.8 million on Instagram. Yaverbaum believes that enlisting Mulvaney can reach potential customers that wouldn’t have previously considered Bud Light, and anyone with an issue simply needs to "get over it."
"Open up your mind to other ways of thinking and how other people look at the world," he said.
"We all have our opinions. You know, I think there is great value in the ability to look at life through the lens of somebody else. Try to understand that for a minute," Yaverbaum continued. "Two months from now, no one's going to remember this. There'll be no definitive bump in their sales, will be no definitive hit on our sales. But we'll talk about this. This is going to make the media rounds for another week or two and then everybody will forget, just like people forget Ikea."
On Friday, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth took steps to move forward and published a heavily criticized statement addressing the controversy surrounding Bud Light.
"As the CEO of a company founded in America's heartland more than 165 years ago, I am responsible for ensuring every consumer feels proud of the beer we brew," Whitworth wrote. "We have thousands of partners, millions of fans and a proud history supporting our communities, military, first responders, sports fans and hard-working Americans everywhere."
Whitworth added, "We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer… moving forward, I will continue to work tirelessly to bring great beers to consumers across our nation."
Critics across the ideological spectrum lit Whitworth's statement on fire, the vast majority of them concluding he said "nothing" while some pointed out that he did not directly mention either Bud Light or Mulvaney, who some have said has made a mockery of biological women. Others blasted the beer CEO for not offering an apology and some advocated to maintain a boycott of Bud Light.
Yaverbaum, who suggested Bud Light should have instead "tripled down" on the pact with Mulvaney, wasn’t a fan of Whitworth’s statement, either. He feels Anheuser-Busch probably didn’t put much thought into the promotion in the first place, and the feeble response to the public relations debacle that followed will only make things worse.
"They’re trying to play two sides. You tell us what you stand for, Bud Light, and then we’ll decide if we want to buy your product," he said. "I think that their response is weak at best. It tries to play both sides and that definitely won't work."
Despite objecting to the way Anheuser-Busch responded, Yaverbaum is thrilled Bud Light partnered with Mulvaney.
"There is nothing offensive about this in any way, shape or form. I think it's fabulous that they did this ad. I hope more companies will," he said.
Fox News’ Landon Mion and Joseph A. Wulfsohn contributed to this report.
