Former Anheuser-Busch executive Anson Frericks weighed in on the recent Bud Light controversy and said that he doesn’t think anybody is “necessarily happy” after a “traditionally apolitical” brand partnered with transgender influencer and activist Dylan Mulvaney.
Bud Light, a famous beer brand whose parent company is Anheuser-Busch, came under fire by conservatives after Mulvaney shared a sponsored video on her Instagram account announcing that Bud Light had sent her a customized beer can with her face on it. The beer can was sent to Mulvaney in celebration of her one-year anniversary since her transition, but the company’s support of Mulvaney received backlash from some conservatives who took the post personally and boycotted the product in response.
Alissa Heinerscheid, the company’s marketing vice president who was behind the Bud Light ad campaign with Mulvaney, has taken a “leave of absence” this week after the ad outraged conservatives and MAGA supporters.
In a Sunday interview with conservative network Fox News, Frericks criticized the company’s direction in serving its customer base. He said that he doesn’t think anybody is “necessarily happy” about Bud Light, a “traditionally apolitical brand” partnering with Mulvaney who he called “very controversial.”
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Frericks worked at Anheuser-Busch for nearly 11 years, and he is now the co-founder and president of Strive Asset Management, an asset management firm focused on a mission to “restore the voices of everyday citizens in the American economy by guiding companies to focus on excellence over politics.”
The former Anheuser-Busch executive dismissed the possibility that customers who shunned the brand might forget this controversy and go back to consuming Bud Light again.
“That’s the bet they [Anheuser-Busch] are making. I think that’s the wrong bet to make and I think now is the time to go back… to say that ‘hey, moving forward, for brands like Bud Light, we’re not going to be political. We’re not going to get involved in the environmental social governance movement,’ because that’s not what the customer wants,” he said on Fox News.
He continued: “What the customer wants with Bud Light is they want to have things that bring us together. They want humor… they want football, they want the things that bind us together…not necessarily having Bud Light get involved in political controversies.”
Frericks also spoke about how the company is not valuing shareholders over stakeholders, a matter that he detailed in a Wall Street Journal op-ed published on Thursday.
“Anheuser-Busch is losing customers over Bud Light’s partnership with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney, but the company’s problem is more fundamental. The brewer has fallen in line with other companies engaged in ‘stakeholder capitalism,’ which prioritizes broad social issues over shareholder value,” he wrote in the op-ed.
He added that this wasn’t the case when he worked at the company, explaining that the firm was focused on increasing shareholder value by partially branding Bud Light as a “high-quality” and “decidedly apolitical” product.
When asked about management changes, an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson told Newsweek on Saturday that the company is taking steps to help maintain focus on “the things we do best: brewing great beer for all consumers, while always making a positive impact in our communities and on our country.”
However, Frericks warned on Sunday against companies getting involved in “stakeholder capitalism,” which he explained would happen when a company is asked to be accountable to different stakeholders—such as political and activist organizations— by implementing Environmental Social Governance policies (ESG).
“Unfortunately, when you try to be everything to everyone, you end up being accountable to no one,” he said on Fox News.
Newsweek reached out by email to Anheuser-Busch’s press team for comment.