The marketing genius behind some of Budweiser's most iconic ads has slammed his former employer for destroying the image he helped create.
Robert Lachky, who created the memorable 'Whassup?' promo of 1999 and the 'Talking Frogs' commercial that debuted at the Super Bowl five years earlier, said it took him two decades to establish Budweiser as one of America's most prominent beers.
But, he said, that all came crashing down last month when TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, 26, announced she was partnering with Bud Light and showed off cans featuring her face.
Now, sales of the light beer are down in every region of the United States.
'It took us 20 years to take Bud Light beer to the Number 1 beer in the country, and it took them one week to dismantle it,' Lachky said of InBev, Budweiser's Belgian parent company.
He also created the iconic 'Whassup?' commercial for Budweiser in 1999
America's flagship beer brand has been sent into a steep decline after it used transgender TikToker Dylan Mulvaney, 26, to promote the beverage
During Lachky's time at the Anheuser-Busch, he created many of the Budweiser's Super Bowl ad campaigns in the 1990s and 2000s.
One of the ones he created, in which three frogs croaked 'bud,' 'weiss' and 'err,' was dubbed 'one of the most iconic alcohol campaigns in advertising history' by Adweek.
And another, featuring a group of friends calling each other while sitting at their respective homes watching television and drinking a Budweiser, in which they ask each other 'Whassup' helped define the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Lachky also served as Bud Light's brand manager, creating advertisements like the I Love You Man commercial in 1995 and the Real Men of Genius campaigns.
Under his tenure, Bud Light surpassed Miller Light as the top-selling light beer country.
He left Anheuser-Busch in 2009, just four months after InBev acquired the company and began implementing aggressive cost-cutting measures, including several rounds of layoffs — though Lachky says it was his own decision to leave.
Now, Lachky — who runs his own consulting firm in St. Louis — says the company only has itself to blame for its plummeting sales.
'It's self-inflicted,' he told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, claiming Anheuser-Busch suffers from a 'complete lack of corporate oversight and it's been that way since [InBev] took the company over.
Lachky was the brains behind the memorable Talking Frogs commercial that debuted at the Super Bowl in 1995
Robert Lachky, who was behind some of Budweiser's most iconic ads, said Anheuser-Busch is destroying the image he helped create
Executives at the company have tried to claim that Mulvaney was never actually partnered with Bud Light despite the transgender TikTok star saying otherwise in her early April video, which even included the hashtag #budlightpartner.
On Monday, Anheuser-Busch Global CEO Michel Doukeris blamed 'misinformation and disinformation' that was spread online for making people believe cans with Mulvaney's face were being rolled out for sale across the US.
'We never intended to make it for general production and sale for the public...it was one post. It was not an advertisement,' he told the Financial Times.
Doukeris also claimed that the video was not part of an advertising campaign in a call with investors last week.
'We need to clarify the facts that this was one camp, one influencer, one post and not a campaign.'
But a letter sent to retailers, bars and restaurants by Grey Eagle – which distributes Anheuser-Busch products around St Louis — claimed that the Mulvaney ad was the brainchild of an outside ad agency that partnered with the company.
It read: 'Anheuser-Busch did not intend to create controversy or make a political statement.
'In reality, the Bud Light can posted by a social media influencer that sparked all the conversation was provided by an outside agency without Anheuser-Busch management awareness or approval.
'Since that time, the lack of oversight and control over marketing decisions has been addressed and a new VP of Bud Light marketing has been announced.'
Anheuser Busch global CEO Michel Doukeris has tried to claim that the firm never actually partnered with Mulvaney, despite earlier claims that said the campaign was the brainchild of an outside agency that never consulted with the company
He also claimed that cans featuring Mulvaney's face were never meant for sale in the US
The company had previously announced that vice president of marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, took a leave of absence and the vice president for mainstream brand, Daniel Blake, stepped down from his post amid backlash for the campaign.
The firm said both bosses 'decided' to temporarily step down, but their decisions were reportedly not voluntary.
'Given the circumstances, Alissa has decided to take a leave of absence which we support. Daniel has also decided to take a leave of absence,' the company said.
But with these constantly changing excuses, Lachky said, the company is only hurting itself.
'It's pretty obvious InBev continues to fan the flames on their own with their defensive comments,' he told the New York Post.
Anheuser-Busch put two of their most senior members of the marketing team on leave following the backlash to Mulvaney's video. Pictured: Alissa Heinerscheid
Daniel Blake, who is the vice president for Anheuser-Busch's mainstream brands has stepped back from his job, after controversy about Bud Light's partnership with Dylan Mulvaney
Almost immediately after Mulvaney posted her video in early April, Anheuser-Busch lost more than $6billion in market capitalization.
In total, sales fell 26 percent in the second quarter of 2023 after earning $1.65billion in the first quarter, Doukeris announced in an earnings call last week.
He said the brewer posted revenue of $14.21 billion in the period, which also beat forecasts, with the shares rising 6 percent since the beginning of the year and 12 percent in 12 months.
Still, sales volumes of all Anheuser-Busch products fell more than 12 percent last month, with Bud Light sales falling a staggering 21.4 percent.
That decline in Bud Light sales could be felt in every region of the country, according to new data from Beer Business Daily.
Sales in the Rocky Mountain states dipped the most significantly, down by 29 percent, with the South Atlantic, West North Central and East South Central all dropping 25 percent.
The Tumbleweed, a cowboy bar in Wyoming, ditched Bud Light after the controversy – instead plumping for Guinness.
Sales in the East North Central area - which includes Michigan and Illinois, both of which have seen a backlash against the beer - were down 23.5 percent in the week ending April 22.
The beer was originally the only brand under the brewing conglomerate's umbrella to be affected by the controversy, but the new numbers have revealed that several other products' sales have also dipped.
Budweiser has been struck by the knock-on effect, with sales dipping 11.5 percent.
Two more Anheuser-Busch brands were also feeling the result of the backlash, with Busch dropping 5.3 percent and Natural dropping 6 percent.
Meanwhile, competitors Coors Light was up 17.3 percent, Miller Lite up 19.1 percent, Yuengling was up 20.1 percent with Coors Banquet up 27.9 percent and Miller Genuine Draft up 7.3 percent.
Yuengling took the tumbling sales of Bud Light in their stride, rising up 14.7 percent, while Miller Light had a spike of 12.8 percent, Coors Light rose 10.9 percent, and Coors Banquet 20.5 percent.
That comes in stark contrast to last year, when sales of Bud Light topped $4.8 billion, Modelo Especial had $3.75 billion while Michelob Ultra generated $3.3 billion in sales.
In dollars, Anheuser-Busch has dropped 6.1 percent since the Mulvaney campaign, while Molson Coors was up 13.8 percent and Constellation up 8.7 percent.
Bud Light was down 17.2 percent, Busch was up 1.3 percent and Natural was down 0.2 percent, while Budweiser also fell 6.7 percent.
Competitor Coors Light was up 17.3 percent, Miller Lite up 19.1 percent, Yuengling was up 20.1 percent with Coors Banquet up 27.9 percent and Miller Genuine Draft up 7.3 percent.
Now, analysts at HSBC have downgraded Anheuser-Busch's stock, saying it is in the midst of a 'crisis' over the marketing blunder.
Carlos Laboy, a managing director at HSBC's global beverage sector, downgraded the stock of Anheuser-Busch InBev to a hold status. It means that investors should not buy or sell shares of the company.
He said that the backlash is a sign there are 'deeper problems than ABI admits', questioning if it was 'hiring the best people to grow the brands and gauge risk.'
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