(LifeSiteNews) — Country singer Travis Tritt said last week that he would stop requesting Anheuser-Busch products as part of his tour hospitality rider after its Bud Light brand partnered with “trans” influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
“I will be deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from my tour hospitality rider,” Tritt tweeted on April 5. He added, “I know many other artists who are doing the same.” A tour hospitality rider refers to a list of items that artists request while on tour.
“Other artists who are deleting Anheuser-Busch products from their hospitality rider might not say so in public for fear of being ridiculed and cancelled,” he said in another tweet. “I have no such fear.”
I will be deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from my tour hospitality rider. I know many other artists who are doing the same.
— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 5, 2023
Other artists who are deleting Anheuser-Busch products from their hospitality rider might not say so in public for fear of being ridiculed and cancelled. I have no such fear. https://t.co/YgjO9P03tR
— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 6, 2023
Mulvaney had posted multiple videos of himself promoting Bud Light – including one with a custom can featuring his image. A representative for the company reportedly said that this version wasn’t available for sale but specially made for Mulvaney.
In a statement to Fox News, Anheuser-Busch stood by its decision to showcase Mulvaney. “Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics and passion points,” a spokesperson reportedly said. “From time to time, we produce unique commemorative cans for fans and for brand influencers, like Dylan Mulvaney. This commemorative can was a gift to celebrate a personal milestone and is not for sale to the general public.”
While Tritt didn’t specifically name Mulvaney on Twitter, he posted some of his own song lyrics suggesting that he would be bucking national trends and acting as an “old outlaw”:
And they say country’s changin’
And we must all adjust
But I still think there’s lots of room
For old outlaws like us.
Tritt is a country music mainstay who has won numerous awards – including two Grammys – and produced many chart-topping singles. He wasn’t alone in his dismay as the company lost consumers after Mulvaney’s video aired.
Beer Business Daily, an industry publication, reportedly said that limited data indicated “it appears likely Bud Light took a volume hit in some markets over the holiday weekend.” Between March 31 and April 10, Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch reportedly lost $4 billion in market capitalization, although it’s unclear what exactly drove the decline.
Meanwhile, Kid Rock released a video using Bud Light cans for target practice while conservative commentators Matt Walsh and Charlie Kirk called for a boycott. The Babylon Bee responded with the mocking headline: “Beverage Pretending to Be Beer Features Man Pretending to Be Woman.”
RELATED: Bud Light’s parent company loses $4 billion after partnering with ‘trans’ activist Dylan Mulvaney
The controversy reflected mounting tension between Americans and brands that have embraced a “pro-LGBT” agenda. That included Country Music Television, which has celebrated Pride Month and featured a performance with drag queens earlier this month. Tritt also called out Jack Daniels whiskey after the brand announced a “summer camp” with Ru Paul’s Drag Race.
“All the @JackDaniels_US drinkers should take note,” he tweeted last week.
All the @JackDaniels_US drinkers should take note. pic.twitter.com/W0d9lMoSxq
— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 6, 2023
Fellow country music star John Rich also announced he was pulling Bud Light products from his Nashville bar. He told Fox News host Tucker Carlson: “I own a bar in downtown Nashville. Our number one selling beer up until a few days ago was what? Bud Light. We got cases and cases and cases of it sitting back there. But in the past several days you’re hard-pressed to find anyone ordering one. So as a business owner, I go, hey if you aren’t ordering it, we got to put something else in here. At the end of the day, that’s capitalism. That’s how it works.”
Like Bud Light, Nike also partnered with Mulvaney, who donned women’s clothing from the brand on his Instagram. It’s unclear what exactly has prompted the wave of “pro-gay” advocacy among corporations but Bud Light’s vice president of marketing Alissa Heinerscheid reportedly urged “inclusivity” as a way to fix the brand’s “fratty” public image.
“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,'” she said during a March 30 podcast.
Heinersheid also said: “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.”
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Tritt suggested that the brand had “sold out to the Europeans.”
In full disclosure, I was on a tour sponsored by Budweiser in the 90’s. That was when Anheuser-Busch was American owned. A great American company that later sold out to the Europeans and became unrecognizable to the American consumer. Such a shame.
— Travis Tritt (@Travistritt) April 6, 2023
“In full disclosure, I was on a tour sponsored by Budweiser in the 90’s,” he tweeted. “That was when Anheuser-Busch was American owned. A great American company that later sold out to the Europeans and became unrecognizable to the American consumer. Such a shame.