Bud Light’s senior marketing executive, Alissa Heinerscheid, has taken a leave of absence and has been replaced after a damaging marketing campaign promoting the “transgender” community.
According to Ad Age, Heinerscheid will be replaced by Budweiser global marketing vice president Todd Allen.
The move comes as Bud Light and its parent company Anheuser-Busch have received criticism for partnering with “transgender” influencer Dylan Mulvaney as part of its March Madness marketing campaign. Mulvaney announced a partnership with Bud Light to celebrate his “365 days of girlhood.”
Before announcing the partnership with Mulvaney, Heinerscheid was interviewed on the podcast “Make Yourself At Home,” where she discussed her role in transforming Bud Light from its “out of touch humor” to a beer company that supports “inclusivity.”
“I’m a businesswoman, I had a really clear job to do when I took over Bud Light, and it was ‘This brand is in decline, it’s been in a decline for a really long time, and if we do not attract young drinkers to come and drink this brand there will be no future for Bud Light,‘” Heinerscheid said during the interview.
Bud Light’s head of marketing explains the new woke business model.
— Inside The Classroom | Trans-Cult Enemy (@EITC_Official) April 10, 2023
Heinersheid added that for the brand to “evolve and elevate,” it must incorporate inclusivity, shift its tone, create an inclusive campaign, and appeal to men and women. She also criticized Bud Light’s past branding strategies.
“We had this hangover, I mean Bud Light had been kind of a brand of fratty, kind of out-of-touch humor, and it was really important that we had another approach,” she said.
After her remarks went viral, critics called Heinerscheid a hypocrite when photos surfaced allegedly showing her enjoying the “fratty” culture she criticized while a student at Harvard.
Images on her now-deleted Facebook page show the Bud Light executive at a campus scavenger hunt, blowing up contraceptives, and drinking beers during a 2006 “booze fest.”
Despite the criticism of the partnership with Mulvaney, Bud Light defended the move before later offering an “apology” to its customers.
“We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people,” Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Brendan Whitworth said in a press release. “We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”
Anheuser-Busch’s partnership with Mulvaney led the company to lose over $5 billion in market value.
Since the leave, Heinerscheid has reportedly been formerly replaced by former Global Vice President Todd Allen.
