Human Rights Campaign Suspends A-B’s Perfect Corporate Equality Score; Republican Senators Dig Into Dylan Mulvaney Partnership

After its request for a conversation with Anheuser-Busch InBev (A-B) leadership last month went unanswered, the Human Right Campaign (HRC) has suspended the perfect 100 score it gave A-B on its 2022 Corporate Equality Index (CEI), which will prohibit the company from using the organization’s designation as one of the “Best Places to Work.”

“Our decision to suspend Anheuser-Busch’s Corporate Equality Index score comes after several attempts to contact their executive team to discuss recent issues of inclusion and equity,” HRC SVP of programs, research and training Jay Brown said in a statement to Brewbound. “We don’t make this decision lightly.”

The HRC first approached A-B after the company bent to conservative outrage at its partnership with Dylan Mulvaney, a social media influencer who documents her life as a trans woman. A-B’s stance alienated many in the LGBTQ+ community, resulting in the removal of its products from several LGBTQ+ bars, including those in the Illinois-based 2 Bears Tavern Group.

If A-B does not respond in 90 days, the HRC will consider deducting from the company’s score. Last month, the organization asked A-B to support Mulvaney in the face of right-wing outrage, reaffirm “its full support for it transgender customers, shareholders and employees,” “conduct workplace transgender inclusions training for Anheuser-Busch executive,” and have a “meaningful conversation” with its LGBTQ+ employee group.

“Our goal is to work with companies, helping them understand how critical it is to support the LGBTQ+ community — especially at a time when we’re facing unprecedented legislative attacks on our very existence — and then give them concrete examples of how to do that,” Brown said. “Anheuser-Busch’s shameful response after receiving bad-faith criticism is not only the wrong thing to do, it’s anti-business.”

Republican Senators Dig Into A-B’s Dylan Mulvaney Partnership;

Two Republican U.S. Senators have initiated an investigation into A-B’s marketing partnership with Dylan Mulvaney.

“We believe that Anheuser-Busch’s clear failure to exercise appropriate due diligence when selecting online influencers for its marketing efforts warrants detailed oversight by Congress,” Sens. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) wrote to A-B U.S. CEO Brendan Whitworth.

Cruz and Blackburn called on the Beer Institute (BI), of which Whitworth is chairman and senior director, to review how Bud Light’s partnership with Mulvaney squared with its advertising and marketing code. They alleged “Mulvaney’s audience skews significantly younger than the legal drinking age,” which would violate the code.

The senators pointed to Mulvaney’s use of “girlhood” to describe her transition and a video of her shopping for Barbie dolls as proof that her content is “presented to specifically appeal to young viewers.” Throughout the letter, Cruz and Blackburn misgendered Mulvaney by using male pronouns.

In addition, Cruz and Blackburn quoted former Bud Light VP of marketing Alissa Heinerscheid, who has since gone on leave from her job, asserting that the brand needed to “attract younger drinkers” or else “there will be no future for Bud Light.”

For its part, the BI issued a statement reaffirming the code, which was revised last year to specify that brewers should only be advertising in “magazines, newspapers, television, radio and digital media where adults of legal drinking age make up at least 73.6% of the audience.”

“The code reflects the beer industry’s commitment to responsibility and has evolved over time to meet changing social norms and technological advancements,” BI president and CEO Brian Crawford said in the statement. “Beer advertising materials are created for and directed to adult consumers of legal drinking age, and brewers follow the strictest standards in the beverage alcohol industry in marketing their products.

“Brewers are proud of this commitment to responsibility and the FTC has repeatedly confirmed the effectiveness of the Beer Institute Advertising and Marketing Code,” he continued.

In their letter, Cruz and Blackburn provided incomplete data about the age of Instagram and TikTok’s audiences, claiming that both platforms “skew heavily toward younger audiences.” They quoted social media marketing management tool Hootsuite, which said Instagram – where Mulvaney’s video was posted – is the “favorite social media platform” of Generation Z, who were born between 1997 and 2012.

As of January 2023, the majority of Instagram’s global user base (30.8%) was aged 18-24, followed closely behind by users aged 25-24 (30.3%), according to a Meltwater study, published by Statistica. More than 90% of users were 18 or older.

The senators asked A-B to “review all of their influencer relationships and sever any and all relationships with persons whose online personas violate the Beer Institute’s marketing standards, as Dylan Mulvaney’s clearly does” and “ask that Dylan Mulvaney and all similarly inappropriate persons used by Anheuser-Busch in its marketing remove all Anheuser-Busch content from their online accounts.”

They also requested a lengthy list of documents from A-B, including all communications between the company and Mulvaney, any scripts or guidance provided to her, requests for content sent to Mulvaney or her agent and any recaps conducted as a result of the partnership.

A-B did not return a request for comment as of press time.

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