OAN’s Elizabeth Volberding
4:50 PM – Wednesday, October 11, 2023
A San Francisco-based advertising agency connected to Bud Light’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney was in a “serious panic mode” after it fired multiple top executives as part of a “major restructuring.”
The marketing firm Captiv8, which was the third party advertising agency that was responsible for teaming Bud Light, is owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev) and has announced that the firm has had “monumental” layoffs.
Captiv8 is an 8-year-old advertising firm that is based out of San Mateo, California.
The firm fired 20% of its employees in late September and 30 additional employees have now been dropped, according to the New York Post.
On April 1st, 2023, the agency debuted an advertisement portraying Mulvaney dancing in a bubble bath next to a serving platter of Bud Light cans.
The source stated that there was enormous confusion within Captiv8’s offices as it began to trigger major public backlash and criticism.
“There was a lot of chatter in the office about what would happen to the firm over the botched campaign”, The Post claimed. “Internally, the company was in serious panic mode.”
The brewery company placed its vice president of marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, and her boss, Daniel Blake, on leave in April.
Soon after, AB InBev communicated to its distributors that the beer can displaying Mulvaney’s face was not manufactured or created by them or any of its affiliates. Therefore, the beer company revealed that it had cut connections with the “third party” in charge of the Mulvaney video, according to The Post.
“Ad agencies send out hundreds of influencer kits a year, some of which have a customized can included. This was one of those situations,” said a distributor based in Texas who conveyed AB InBev’s talking points.
“I’m a businesswoman,” said Captiv8’s vice president, Heinerscheid. “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.’”
The vice president of the marketing agency also made remarks a day before the collaboration with Mulvaney, saying that the Bud Light company had taken on a “fratty” and “out of touch” image.
As a result of the ad campaign collaborated between Bud Light and Mulvaney, the brewery company has experienced a huge blow in sales.
The brewery brand dealt with a decrease of 25.7% during the week of May 20th, 2023, according to data provided by Bump Williams Consulting and Nielson IQ.
AB InBev’s stock price was slashed and Bud Light went from being the most favored beer brand in the U.S. to being criticized for their branding.
AB InBev’s shares also dropped a startling 18.5% after the Mulvaney promotion was launched.
Now, the Captiv8 agency has let go of almost 30 top workers, many of which were senior managers.
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