- Anson Frericks, a former executive at Anheuser-Busch, has criticized how the company has handled the backlash against Bud Light.
- The beer brand has been slammed with an onslaught of criticism and declining sales since April.
- The backlash stemmed from a promotion that featured a transgender influencer.
A former Anheuser-Busch executive is stepping up his public criticism of how the company is dealing with a controversy that has tanked sales of the company’s Bud Light brand.
Sales dropped and conservatives called for boycotts of the top-selling beer after an April social media promotion by transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
The company’s response has also come under fire from LGBTQ+ advocates who have called on the company to stand behind the transgender community. Anheuser-Busch’s US CEO, Brendan Whitworth, has avoided explicitly defending the partnership with Mulvaney — but also has declined to call the collaboration a mistake.
Meanwhile, former Anheuser-Busch sales and distribution president Anson Frericks, a vocal critic of corporate ESG, or environmental, social, and governance policies, is now calling for Whitworth to resign.
Frericks told Insider that Anheuser-Busch’s and Whitworth’s responses to the backlash have failed to “address the problem head-on,” and have “continued to divide customers and hurt their sales.”
“He’s failed to address the issue three times now,” Frericks said of Whitworth. Whitworth released two statements responding to the backlash, in April and June, before making an appearance on CBS.
“I guess you could use the baseball analogy that he’s had three strikes, and he’s now out.”
Earlier this week, Frericks continued his scrutiny of the company in an interview with Newsweek, saying: “Anheuser-Busch did not understand their customer base and kind of also where their customer base is, in terms of what messaging they want to see from Bud Light.”
A spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch did not respond to Insider’s request for comment.
Anheuser-Busch critic raps focus on ‘social issues’
Frericks’ comments added to the barrage of criticism he’s leveled at the beer brand since April. Frericks wrote an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, opining the brand was focused on “stakeholder capitalism,” which he wrote “prioritizes broad social issues over shareholder value.” He’s made appearances on Fox News, and he recently wrote a column for the Daily Mail, in which he called for Whitworth to step down.
Frericks was president of sales and distribution at Anheuser-Busch from October 2021 until he left the company in April 2022 after nearly 11 years there. He is now the president of Strive Asset Management. Strive is an anti-ESG investing firm whose stated mission is “to restore the voices of everyday citizens in the American economy by leading companies to focus on excellence over politics.”
Frericks told Insider he left Anheuser-Busch on his own terms to start Strive. He cofounded the company with conservative firebrand Vivek Ramaswamy, who is now running for president on an “anti-woke” platform.
Frericks has taken a similar approach with other companies. In February, Frericks wrote a letter to Salesforce’s CEO Marc Benoiff, in which he called on the company to “stop using [the] business as a ‘platform for social change.'” Now, Anheuser-Busch has gotten involved with issues that he’s been fighting against, Frericks told Insider.
“Until we find a CEO that is going to address this head-on, I don’t think this situation is going to go away,” Frericks told Insider. “In the best interest of shareholders, they need to find a CEO who will address this head on. We’ll continue to see sales drop, and shelf space at retailers lost, and that will put thousands of people’s jobs at risk, both at Anheuser-Busch and at wholesalers partners.”
Frericks expressed similar sentiments on Monday, when he spoke to Fox News about Anheuser-Busch’s drop in sales, and called the promotion with Mulvaney a “mistake.”
“I think I’m even more shocked, though, about the lack of clear response that the current CEO has delivered during this crisis,” Frericks told Fox News.
“There’s going to be more employees at risk if we don’t find a CEO who can somehow address the situation, get those customers back that were always loyal to Bud Light and move this company forward,” Frericks told Fox.
In 2019, Bud Light released rainbow-patterned beer bottles during Pride Month, and formerly had received a “Best Place to Work for LGBTQ+ Equality” title from the country’s largest LGBTQ+ advocacy group — a title the Human Rights Campaign removed in May. Still, Frericks told Insider that he believes that the promotion with Mulvaney wasn’t authentic for the brand, saying: “Bud Light was never a brand where its customers wanted to focus on political issues.”
“Dylan Mulvaney wasn’t the right choice for the brand as well” Frericks said. “If Anheuser-Busch can’t stand by this sponsorship with Dylan Mulvaney, they should have never done the promotion in the first place.”
The dip in Bud Light sales persisted through the end of June, USA Today reported. To alleviate fallout, the company announced it was sending financial support to wholesalers impacted by the boycott, and rolled out a new summer campaign, spotlighting their frontline workers.
In a TikTok video posted at the end of June, Mulvaney alleged that Bud Light never reached out to her following the onslaught of hate she received.
“For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all,” she said.
“Deep down it’s a great company with great brands,” Frericks said. “But unfortunately they don’t have a leader who can rectify this situation, and they need a clear path out of this. Now they’re four months into this controversy, and there’s no end in sight.”
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