Anheuser Busch CEO addresses Bud Light controversy (NYSE:BUD)

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Bryan Bedder

Anheuser Busch (BUD) CEO Michel Doukeris discussed the impact of a social media backlash against the Bud Light brand after a controversial ad campaign, downplaying the impact on long-term targets.

During the Q1 earnings call he explained that the backlash was not over a formal ad campaign. Instead, he advised that the ad “was not made for production or sales to general public.” Doukeris added that it was merely one post that ignored the firestorm.

“This situation has impacted our people and especially our frontline workers: The delivery drivers; sales representatives; our wholesalers; Bud owners; and servers. These people are the fabric of our business. They are our neighbors, family members and friends. They are in every community in America. We’ve been doing everything we can to support our teams and ensure safety, while continuing to brew, package and together for wholesalers deliver great beer to the market,” he said. “We are providing direct financial support to the frontline teams that work for us and our wholesalers. As to Bud Light, we have significantly increased our investments behind the brands in the U.S., including tripling our medium spend over the summer.”

The company has reportedly even offered free beer to distributors to make up for the impact on sales. Doukeris did not comment specifically on this reported action. Overall, he advised the impact of boycotts are not likely to hamper the company in the long term, highlighting previous bans on beer sales in certain countries and the shutdown of bars during COVID as far larger obstacles already overcome by the brewing giant.

“With respect to the current situation and the impact of Bud Light sales, it is too early to have a full view,” Doukeris added. “The Bud Light volume decline in the U.S. over the first 3 weeks of April, as publicly reported, would represent around 1% of our overall global volumes for that period. With this perspective and in the context of our global business, we believe we have the experience, the resources and the partners to manage this. And our full year EBITDA growth outlook is unchanged.”

On the overall results, analysts generally applauded the results, but pointed to some inflation in sales in South America. Revenue increased by over 100% on an organic basis in Argentina, for example, amid high levels of inflation in the nation.

Shares of AB InBev (BUD) rose 3.47% in afternoon trading on Thursday. The stock has declined less than 1% in the past month.