EXCLUSIVEDylan Mulvaney calls out Bud Light for failing to stand up to 'bullying'

By Daniel Bates For Dailymail.com 15:56 11 Mar 2024, updated 17:18 11 Mar 2024

Trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney has revealed she wanted to win back Bud Light customers enraged by her advertising the beer by doing a commercial with a cowboy and a trans person.

Mulvaney said her idea to bring 'healing' was a trans person at one end of a bar and a Western-style cowboy at the other with a Bud Light in the middle.

But Bud Light's parent company Anheuser-Busch InBev was not apparently interested and the idea went nowhere, Mulvaney said at the SXSW festival.

During a panel discussion Mulvaney scolded Bud Light and said that it needed to act like a parent and stand up to 'bullying' during the backlash over its decision to hire her to promote the brand.

She also claimed that the row and its aftermath had boosted her profile and she was arguably 'the most privileged trans person in this country.'

Anheuser-Busch InBev's decision to hire Mulvaney is estimated to have cost the company more than $1billion in lost sales and knocked it off the number 1 best selling beer spot in the US.

The controversy began in April last year when Mulvaney, 27, posted on Instagram a photo of a custom can of Bud Light sent to her by the beer to celebrate '365 Days of Girlhood' during her transition to a woman.

She also posted photos of her opening a can of Bud Light during March Madness in an apparent attempt to broaden the appeal of the beer to LGBTQ customers.

But the backlash was swift and furious with customers staging a boycott and Kid Rock posting videos online of him shooting cases of Bud Light with a rifle.

Anheuser-Busch InBev CEO Brendan Whitworth issued an apology and Bud Light is now partnering with comedian Shane Gillis, known for his controversial jokes about disabled people.

The SXSW talk was titled 'Role of Brands & Media in Fighting Hate' and promised to talk about the 'responsibility of brands and the media to not fuel the fire of misinformation and discrimination'.

The description said that the right wing 'seized' on Mulvaney being hired by Bud Light and that Anheuser-Busch InBev's response 'only exacerbated things further'.

Addressing the audience, Mulvaney said: 'I did have an idea how to fix last year's situation. I come from a comedy background, it can be very healing and it can appeal to both sides.

'I thought how fun if we'd done a Western commercial, where it was a cowboy at the end of a bar and a trans person on the other (end) and there's one beer in the center.'

She whistled a Western-style soundtrack and added: 'Just because we could have a laugh and to show that as much as these are all very real world things there's also some compassion, we all like beer. It doesn't have to be separate.'

But Mulvaney, who recently bombed during a stand up comedy set, also admitted that her millennial humor was 'a little cringe' and that younger people referred to her as 'mother.'

She sparked backlash once again for posing with Lady Gaga for a photoshoot last week in honor of International Women's Day.

During the talk Mulvaney said that after the Bud Light backlash 'certain brands didn't even continue speaking with me'.

She said: 'I could have been so integral to the solutions but they continued - I think of it like a parent, the parent doesn't put a stop to something then they bullying can continue.

'These brands need to step up and let people know it's not okay'.

Mulvaney said that the abuse she experienced as a result of the Bud Light campaign was 'disheartening'.

She recalled being 'followed and harassed in public' and said that it was 'something I never thought would be part of my daily life.

Other trans content creators lost jobs because of her, even during Pride month which is usually their busiest time of the year.

Mulvaney said that nowadays because of her high profile it was 'scary' to know that any campaign featuring her could have a wider impact on trans people.

'I'm not one of the most if not the most privileged trans person in this country right now', she said.

Nowadays Mulvaney has it written into her contract 'in case of a boycott this and this will happen' to protect herself, she said.

Content creators like Mulvaney don't have agents and security like mainstream talent and when the Bud Light controversy blew up, she didn't even know about cyber security.

Mulvaney said: 'There is a responsibility that needs to be taken by the brand that there will be protection and support otherwise it's putting marginalized groups in a really sticky situation'.

Telling the audience that she wants to see 'trans joy' on people's screens rather than just trans people as victims on shows like Law & Order, Mulvaney hinted that she might be writing a trans rom-com.

Asked if that was what she was producing at the moment, Mulvaney said she was 'working on some things!'

The panel was hosted by Kelley Robinson, President of Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest civil rights organization working on behalf of LGBTQ people.

Also appearing was Aaron Walton, founder of advertising agency Walton / Isaacson and Jo Yurcaba, a nonbinary reporter with NBC News.

Walton called out brands like Bud Light and said companies like them 'need to stop rewarding the wrong behavior'.

He said: 'When you give in to that fear and start to prioritize the negative hate versus the love and the community you ultimately will lose'.

Walton branded figures on the right who criticize trans rights as a 'small group of people with a loud megaphone'.

He praised companies like Levi's and The North Face that have supported LGBTQ people and 'haven't bent to the political hate we know (is) going to blow away'.