Brendan Whitworth wants Bud Light boycotters to blame him for the fateful Dylan Mulvaney promotion and not punish the 65,000 people whose livelihoods depend on Anheuser-Busch.
Speaking to CBS on Wednesday, the former U.S. Marine and CIA spy turned CEO of America’s largest beer brewer said the buck stopped with him when it came to the disastrous promotion with transgender influencer Mulvaney.
“One thing that I’d love to make extremely clear is that impact is my responsibility. As the CEO, everything we do I’m accountable for,” he said in the interview, which he reposted to LinkedIn, but not before disabling comments on the post.
Asked what troubled him the most, he said it was his 18,000 workers and the additional 47,000 people employed by its distributors. That number doesn’t count the farmers he said were also affected by the boycott.
“It’s the impact honestly on the employees that weighs the most on me,” he continued, urging people to drink Bud Light during the upcoming July 4th weekend.
While Anheuser-Busch has sought to minimize the role Mulvaney played in its strategy, Whitworth reaffirmed the company would not change its stance towards its partnerships.
“Bud Light has supported LGBTQ since 1998, so that’s 25 years, and as we’ve said from the beginning we’ll continue to support the communities and organizations that we’ve supported for decades,” he said.
He may have sought to shield his staff from the fallout of the promotion, but he did not explicitly apologize for partnering with Mulvaney either. A number of consumers had claimed this official acknowledgment of a mistake was a prerequisite for winning back their business.
Analysis by Deutsche Bank suggests that while 21% of Bud Light consumers are buying more, another 18% have scaled back their purchases. Roughly a quarter have stopped buying the beer altogether due to the promotion with the transgender social media figure.
Whitworth and brand head Todd Allen are now hoping a new campaign will resurrect sales after demand dropped like a rock amid the controversy. As part of it, investments for the brand are set to triple this year, including spending across sports, primetime and cable television.
Whether that will be enough is questionable.
"It’s insulting that you think an ad about summer will make us forget our principles. The boycott continues," wrote conservative podcaster Liz Wheeler last week, demanding an official apology.
The CEO admitted dealing with the boycott was causing him more gray hairs, but said he loved working for an “institution” like Anheuser-Busch that is “one degree of separation away from the American flag.”
Whitworth may be under intense pressure to rectify the situation that risks getting out of control, but he certainly isn’t the only one in the firing line.
Alissa Heinerscheid, the first woman to lead Bud Light in its 40-plus years of history, became a much bigger target of angry consumers after she partnered with transgender influencer Mulvaney to expand the reach of the beer.
Many took offense at her comments that the in-decline beer brand was “out of touch” due to what she called a “fratty” brand of humor in dire need of a makeover if it was to survive.
Together with Anheuser-Busch's global vice president of marketing, Daniel Blake, she was put on administrative leave.
“Given the circumstances, Alissa has decided to take a leave of absence, which we support,” said a company spokesperson, adding that was also true of Blake. “In the interest of our employees’ safety and privacy, we’re not providing any additional information.”
This story was originally featured on Fortune.com
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