Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) is making use of his time and resources in Congress by demanding that the Beer Institute, the beer industry’s self-regulatory body, conduct an investigation into Bud Light’s short-lived partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney— a partnership that, to him, also “warrants detailed oversight by Congress.”
On Fox and Friends Thursday morning, Cruz explained why he and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) wrote a letter to Anheuser-Busch CEO and Beer Institute Chairman Brendan Whitworth on the matter.
“One of the rules that beer companies are supposed to follow is they’re not supposed to market to kids. Remember the whole Joe the Camel thing? This is the same thing here,” Cruz said, referencing the mascot for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, which ultimately ended its use of the desert animal after a complaint was lodged by the Federal Trade Commission and after the Supreme Court declined to throw out a lawsuit against the cigarette maker.
ADVERTISEMENT
In their letter, Cruz and Blackburn write that the Beer Institute must look into whether its Advertising/Marketing Code and Buying Guidelines were violated. They cite Mulvaney’s TikTok series “Days of Girlhood” as problematic.
“The use of the phrase ‘Girlhood’ was not a slip of the tongue but rather emblematic of a series of Mulvaney’s online content that was specifically used to target, market to, and attract an audience of young people who are well below the legal drinking age in the United States,” they write.
The pair called on Anheuser-Busch to “publicly sever” its relationship with Mulvaney, apologize for using them to allegedly market its product to minors, and to instruct Mulvaney to erase “any Anheuser-Busch content” from their social media profiles. They also demanded a host of documents concerning their partnership “so that Congress can exercise its oversight authority.”
Neither the Beer Institute nor Anheuser-Busch have issued a statement in response to Cruz’s and Blackburn’s request.
Bud Light’s decision to make a promotional can with Mulvaney’s face on it for March Madness caused a conservative backlash, with 52-year-old Kid Rock shooting the beer, and Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders selling koozies. Retail store sales of Bud Light in early April fell 17 percent, while competitor brands Coors Light and Miller Lite each saw a 17.6 percent rise.
In an April 14 statement from Whitworth, the CEO said, “We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people. We are in the business of bringing people together over a beer.”
In a TikTok video a few weeks later, Mulvaney reacted to the backlash, “There’s clearly no way of winning over everyone.”
