Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) called for an investigation into Anheuser-Busch over its Bud Light marketing partnership with transgender TikTok performer Dylan Mulvaney on Thursday, arguing that the beer giant attempted to “target teenagers” and children with Mulvaney’s image.
“Listen, I can’t think of a company in modern times that has more alienated its customer base and seems to have so little understanding of who it is that actually drinks Bud Light,” said Cruz on Fox & Friends, Thursday, before adding:
This week, I sent a letter to the CEO of Anheuser-Busch, along with Senator Marsha Blackburn, because the CEO of Anheuser-Busch is also CEO or the chairman of the Beer Institute, which is the regulatory body, the industry regulatory body that regulates itself, and 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 things here.
Cruz claimed that “a massive percentage of Dylan Mulvaney’s audience are kids” and argued that “Budweiser was trying, I believe with this ill-fated marketing attempt, to target teenagers.”
“If you look at things Dylan Mulvaney has online, it’s things like ‘days of girlhood.’ There’s another video where Dylan Mulvaney is singing, ‘My name is Eloise and I am six.’ There’s another one where Dylan Mulvaney is shopping for Barbie dolls,” Cruz said. “These are clearly things aimed at teenagers and even children younger than teenagers, which violates the rules.”
“So we’re calling on the Beer Institute to investigate the degree to which Anheuser-Busch knowingly was marketing to children in going down this road,” the senator concluded.
Bud Light received massive backlash from conservatives over its brief partnership with Mulvaney, which included featuring the TikTok star’s face on a promotional can. Bud Light sales dropped by 23% and two Anheuser-Busch executives were placed on leave in response to the controversy.
Watch above via Fox News.
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