Dylan Mulvaney says the beer company pranked her
Dylan Mulvaney says Bud Light pranked her after a beer promotion opened her up to a stream of bullying and transphobia.
“I built my platform on being honest with you, and what I’m about to tell you may sound like old news,” Mulvaney said after taking a sip of beer in a video shared on Instagram. “But you get that feeling when you have something uncomfortable sitting on your chest. Well, that’s how I feel right now. So this feels like the right thing to do.”
Mulvaney says she accepted a branding campaign with a company she loved and posted a sponsored video on her Instagram page, not expecting the months-long fallout that followed from a can of Bud Light bearing her likeness.
Anheuser-Busch has struggled with a conservative boycott and falling sales since campaigning with the trans activist.
“I̵[ads1]7;m bringing it up because what happened from that video was more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined and I should have made this video months ago but I didn’t,” she said. “I was scared and I was scared of more backlash and I felt personally guilty for what happened.”
Describing the past few months, Mulvaney said she has been afraid to leave her house and has been publicly ridiculed. She has been followed. The loneliness she has felt she said she wouldn’t wish on anyone.
“I was patiently waiting for things to improve, but surprise, they really haven’t,” Mulvaney said.
Mulvaley also said he was waiting for Bud Light to reach out. But it never did.
And Bud Light still hasn’t reached out to her, according to Mulvaney.
In an interview this week, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth told CBS Mornings that the conversation about Bud Light has moved away from beer and become divisive. “Bud Light doesn’t really belong there,” he said.
Corporate brands from Bud Light to Target have come under attack from conservatives during Pride Month for marketing and merchandise celebrating the LGBTQ community.
The attacks come among hundreds of bills aimed at LGBTQ people — especially transgender people — that have been introduced by Republican lawmakers in statehouses across the country, in an effort to regulate which bathrooms they can use, what medical care they can receive and which sports teams they can play on .
“The goal is to make ‘pride’ toxic to brands,” tweeted one conservative activist.
The LGBTQ+ community has condemned brands that have capitulated to conservative boycotts.
“There’s a big social conversation going on right now, and big brands are in the middle of it, and it’s not just our industry or Bud Light,” Whitworth said. “It’s happening in retail, happening in fast food. And so for us, what we need to understand is – deeply understand and appreciate the consumer and what they want, what they care about and what they expect from big brands.”
Mulvaney said Bud Light’s refusal to publicly stand up for a transgender person was worse than not hiring a transgender person in the first place.
“It gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want,” she said. “And the hate doesn’t stop with me. It has serious, serious consequences for the rest of our community. And we’re customers, too. .”
Mulvaney says she’s not looking for pity. “I’m telling you this because if this is my experience from a very privileged perspective, know that it’s much, much worse for other trans people,” she said.
