Social media continues to be flooded with examples of the Bud Light boycott, the latest coming from a baseball game in Columbia, South Carolina.
Bud Light has been subjected to two months' worth of backlash after they entered a brief collaboration with the transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. As a result, people from Kid Rock to Jordan Peterson have called on consumers to ditch the brand, leading to a loss in profits for parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev.
There have been multiple examples, through viral images and videos, of the Bud Light boycott in action, with eyewitness accounts detailing how the beers are being left on store shelves, at bars and kiosks, in favor of other brands.
The latest example shows Coors Light, owned by the Coors Brewing Company, apparently benefitting from Bud Light's woes.
The Twitter user @anationofone shared two images that seemed to show the stark contrast in popularity of the two beers.
"Columbia, SC Baseball Regional this weekend. Coors Light/Miller Lite line vs Bud Light/AB line," the user wrote. The first image shows no one in line at a Bud Lite branded stand, where the vendor stands alone. The second image shows at least 16 people in line for the stand with Coors Lite branding.
There is no context given as to what time of day both of these pictures are taken, making it hard to verify whether the Bud Light stand remained empty.
The controversy surrounding Bud Light and the public outrage over the beer brand's collaboration with a transgender influencer sits at the heart of a so-called culture war in the U.S. and is emblematic of the broader debate about the acceptance of LGBTQ+ people in public life.
In early April 2023, Mulvaney showed her social media followers a special personalized can of beer that had been sent to her by Bud Light, marking 365 days of her living as a woman. The outrage came quickly, sparked by Kid Rock posting a viral video of himself shooting a machine gun at crates of Bud Light.
Other brands have faced attempted boycotts from those on the right who disagree with attempts to appeal to the LGBTQ+ or transgender market.
Target has suffered substantial losses recently which many saw as a result of backlash that came from the retail giant promoting its Pride line, and "tuck-friendly" women's swimsuits, though a market analyst told Newsweek their losses were unlikely to be related to the boycotts.
Both Anheuser-Busch and Target have reportedly lost billions off of their respective stock prices-something which has been applauded by campaigners including Jordan Peterson who urged his followers to go even further.
The term "go woke, go broke" is often used by campaigners and boycotters and has been seen as a rallying cry when examples of boycotts go viral online.
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