The former leader of Anheuser-Busch reveals how the company has lost its way on Dei. Anson FRERRICKS, former director of Anheuser-Busch, spoke to Fox News Digital about how his former employer has lost sight of his American values.
A former executive from Anheuser-Busch criticized the company’s decision to associate himself with Dylan Mulvaney, saying that he was not “authentic at all”.
“The problem with the Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney partnership was that they were not at all an authentic partnership,” Anson FRERRICKS told Fox News Digital. “They answered many of these particular interests.”
FRERRICKS began his career in Anheuser-Busch in 2011 and has been with the company for more than a decade. He said Digital Fox News He realized that he had to leave when Dei prevented the brand from making what should have been commercial decisions without making, such as partnership with veterans Black rifle coffee.
“I joined a business that I thought I was a great meritocracy, then I saw the company really change, especially after 2020, 2021, when the movement of I was really gaining steam,” said Rritricks.
The former leader of Anheuser-Busch said that Bud Light had not yet recovered after the transgender influencer of controversial partnership Dylan Mulvaney. (JC Olivera / Variety via Getty Images / Jakub Porzycki / Nurphoto via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The former executive left the company before the controversial partnership of 2023 with Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. The counterpoup that followed, which included children’s shooting cases of Bud Light and publish it online, haunts the company to date. Sales were down almost 30% from one year to the next in January 2025.
FRERRICKS said Bud Light had undergone pressure by external interest groups, such as the human rights campaign, to go more and more extreme with the LGBTQ advocacy and finally attack the alienation of its main customers.
“It was authentically a brand that concerned sport and humor and the gathering of people. He never got involved in really politicized problems … And Dylan Mulvaney was the face of many of these very polarizing subjects.” Said Rritricks.
Mulvaney, who appeared on “The View” on Monday to promote her new book “Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer”, said that she was shocked by the counterpoup.
“Well, I’m going to start by saying that I like beer, and I’ve always done it,” said Mulvaney. “So, I mean, when I concluded this affair, I did not think about it, because I was, like” Oh, it’s perfect. “It was like a biological thing to do, and it was just another part of me … [but as the outcry continued to grow] I realized that I had become the child of the poster for this thing. “”
The beer brand Anheuser-Busch suffered after associating with the influencer transgender Dylan Mulvaney. ((Photo of Roy Rochlin / Getty Images) / Getty Images)
FRERRICKS, who discovered the management of Strive assets with Vivek Ramaswamy, said that a convergence of external factors has put pressure on Bud Light to embrace an ever growing section of dei policies that finally led to a disaster for the company.
He stressed that major asset managers like Blackrock puts pressure on businesses to adopt environmental, social and governance policies (ESG) and dei because of the money they have received from pension funds in progressive states such as California and New York, as well as European markets.
Last month, Blackrock Leadership told employees The company was moving away from its dei policies.
The former leader said that Bud Light had a European owner, inBev, made him lose sight of the American values ​​that the brand had come to represent. In the opinion of FRRICKS, it is normal for companies and the government to be collusion to influence social results in Europe, but this type of partnership was contrary to the commercial values ​​of Bud Light and alienating its customers in the United States.
“They respect the really different rules in Europe. Europe is a very pro-Esg pro-dei continent,” he said.
The company has still not submitted the partnership. (Roberto Machado Noa / Lightrocket via Getty Images / Getty Images)
After the customers’ backlash, The CEO of Anheuser-Busch, Brendan Whitworth, published a statement This did not directly mention the partnership of Budweiser with Mulvaney and that the criticisms were below the apologies. However, Bud Light has become official UFC beer and enlisted the actor Shane Gillis to play in a well -received announcement broadcast during the Super Bowl. The announcement, which featured Gillis and the rapper Post Malone, playing “Big Men on the ass”, was greeted by criticism and fans.
FRERRICKS, however, says that for Bud Light to really recover, a real excuse is in order, and perhaps the company should even consider leaving its European mother company and finding an American owner.
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“I always say the path of redemption, it goes through forgiveness,” said FRERICKS. He added that Bud Light needs to admit that they have “messed up” and asking customers a “second chance”.
Anheuser-Busch, Mulvaney and Blackrock did not respond to requests for comments.
