A former Anheuser-Busch executive criticized the company’s decision to partner with Dylan Mulvaney, saying it wasn’t “authentic at all.”
“The problem with the Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney partnership was they just were not an authentic partnership at all,” Anson Frericks told Fox News Digital. “They were catering to a lot of those special interests.”
Frericks began his career at Anheuser-Busch in 2011 and was with the company for over a decade. He told Fox News Digital he realized he needed to leave when DEI was preventing the brand from making what should have been no-brainer business decisions, like partnering with veteran-owned Black Rifle Coffee.
“I joined a company that I thought was a great meritocracy, and then I saw the company really change, especially after 2020, 2021, when the DEI movement was really gaining steam,” Frericks said.
The former executive left the company before the controversial 2023 partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The ensuing backlash, which included Kid Rock shooting cases of Bud Light and posting it online, haunts the company to this day.
Sales were down nearly 30% year over year in January 2025.
Frericks said Bud Light was pressured by outside interest groups, like the Human Rights Campaign, to go more and more extreme with LGBTQ advocacy and ultimately wound up alienating its core customer base.
“It was authentically a brand that was about sports and humor and bringing people together. It never got involved in really politicized issues… and Dylan Mulvaney was the face of a lot of these very polarizing topics.” Frericks said.
Mulvaney, who appeared on “The View” Monday to promote her new book “Paper Doll: Notes from a Late Bloomer,” said she was shocked by the backlash.
“Well, I will start by saying I love beer, and I always have,” Mulvaney said. “So, I mean, when I took that deal, I didn’t think anything of it, because I was, like, ‘Oh, this is perfect.’ It felt like an organic thing to do, and it was just another part of me… [but as the outcry continued to grow] I realized I had become the poster child for this thing.”
Frericks, who went on to found Strive Asset Management with Vivek Ramaswamy, said that a convergence of outside factors pressured Bud Light into embracing an ever-increasing rubric of DEI policies that ultimately led to disaster for the business.
He pointed to large asset managers like BlackRock pressuring companies to adopt environmental, social, and governance (ESG) and DEI policies because of the money they received from pension funds in progressive states like California and New York, as well as European markets.
Last month, BlackRock leadership told employees the company was shifting away from its DEI policies.
The former executive claimed Bud Light having a European owner, InBev, caused it to lose sight of the American values the brand had come to represent. In Frericks’ view, it is normal for business and government to collude to influence social outcomes in Europe, but that kind of partnership was antithetical to Bud Light’s business values and alienating to its customer base in the United States.
“They abide by really different rules over in Europe. Europe is a very pro-ESG, pro-DEI continent,” he said.
After the backlash from customers, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth issued a statement that did not directly mention Budweiser’s partnership with Mulvaney and that critics panned as falling short of an apology.
Still, Bud Light became the official beer of the UFC and enlisted comedian Shane Gillis to star in a well-received ad that aired during the Super Bowl.
The ad, which featured Gillis and rapper Post Malone playing “Big Men on the Cul De Sac,” was praised by critics and fans.
Frericks, however, says that for Bud Light to truly recover, a true apology is in order, and perhaps the company should even consider leaving its European parent company and finding an American owner.
“I always say the path to redemption, it goes through forgiveness,” Frericks said. He added that Bud Light needs to admit they “screwed up” and ask customers for a “second chance.”
Anheuser-Busch, Mulvaney, and BlackRock didn’t respond to requests for comment.
