Bud Light replaces marketing exec behind Dylan Mulvaney partnership: report

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To Patrick Riley

April 21, 2023 | 11:19 PM

Bud Light’s senior marketing executive behind the controversial Dylan Mulvaney ad campaign has reportedly taken a vacation.

Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing for the popular beer, will be replaced by Todd Allen, vice president of global marketing for Budweiser, AdAge reported Friday.

Heinerscheid has been leading the brand since June. It is unclear if her replacement will be permanent.

The move comes after Bud Light and its parent company Anheuser-Busch faced significant backlash over its partnership with transgender influencer Mulvaney.

At the end of Mulvaney’s transition, which she dubbed “365 Days of Girlhood,” the brewer sent the activist a custom-made can with her face on it. She revealed in her April 1st Instagram post with the hashtag #budlightpatner. She later posted another video of her enjoying a beer in her bathtub.

A day before Mulvaney announced the partnership, Heinerscheid was interviewed on the Make Yourself At Home podcast about her work on transforming the Bud Light brand from a “silly” and “no-contact” humor into a beer company that embraces it. talked. Inclusiveness.

“I’m a business woman. When I took over Bud Light, it was clear what I had to do. It was, ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in decline for a really long time. come to drink this brand, there is no future for Bud Light,” said Heinerscheidt.

She brings ‘belief’ to the brand, and evolution and improvement means ’embracing inclusivity, which means changing the tone, feeling truly inclusive, lighter, brighter, different, women or men.

She also disparaged Bud Light’s past branding work.

“We were plagued with this hangover, which is that Bud Light is kind of a surly, unrealistic brand of humor, and it was really important to take a different approach,” she said. rice field.

After her comments went viral during the controversy, critics called Heinerscheid hypocritical when photos emerged showing him enjoying the “disgusting” culture he dismissed as a student at Harvard. called a person.

Heinerscheid was ridiculed after images of him blowing up condoms like balloons and drinking beer during a campus scavenger hunt during the 2006 Sake Festival were posted on his now-deleted Facebook page. rice field.

Despite immediate backlash from its partnership with Mulvaney, Bud Light initially defended the move, then issued a half-hearted apology to loyal customers last week.

Brendan Whitworth, CEO of Anheuser-Busch InBev, said in a press release, “We had no intention of participating in an argument that would divide people.” I’m in the business of connecting.”

In the weeks since Bud Light partnered with Mulvaney, Anheuser-Busch’s value plummeted by more than $5 billion.