It was the reel that launched a million takes: on April 1, 2023, transgender TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney posted a short clip in which the actress, dressed as Audrey Hepburn in her iconic Breakfast at Tiffany’s role, shared a paid promotion from Bud Light. Mulvaney also revealed that the beer brand had sent her a tall can with her face on it to commemorate the one-year anniversary of her viral Days of Girlhood series documenting her gender transition.
The rest is, as they say, history. Mulvaney was mentioned numerous times in right wing media over the next three days. On day 3, Kid Rock filmed himself opening fire into a thirty-rack of the golden froth. Matt Walsh, who had developed something of a personal fixation with Mulvaney, boosted calls for a boycott.
The outrage cycle carried on into a second week, during which Fox News devoted an hour and forty two minutes to the beer can. By day 14, the brewing company had already backed down. On day 15, Donald Trump Jr. failed in his attempt to put an end to the campaign, citing the corporation’s record of funding Republican candidates. By day 19, as the attacks grew more heated, Walsh’s YouTube channel was stripped of advertiser revenue reportedly worth more than $100,000 per month. On day 22, the Bud Light executive reported to have greenlit the promotion was put on leave.
On day 53, retailer Target caved to backlash inspired by the campaign against Bud Light directed at its own pride memorabilia; meanwhile Walsh declared open season on brands that market to LGBTQ customers. Boycott attempts followed against Nike, Jack Daniel’s, Sports Illustrated, the Los Angeles Dodgers, Adidas, Walmart, The North Face, Chick-fil-A, Kohl’s, PetSmart, Fox News, J. Crew, Cracker Barrel, Call of Duty, Blackrock, Vanguard, Kellogg’s, Skittles, Starbucks, and, of course, the Barbie Movie (though Ben Shapiro ignored his colleagues on at least the last of this list). It became difficult to keep track.
By day 76, Bud Light had ceased to be the most tolerated beer in America.
On day 90, Mulvaney denounced the brand as well, noting that their decision to partner with her before abandoning her to face the outrage alone was “worse than not hiring a trans person at all.”
On day 152, the Babylon Bee’s Ashley St. Clair begged conservatives to move onto a new obsession. On day 209, the Blaze declared victory. But it still wasn’t over: On day 231, Riley Gaines denounced “the Dylanization of corporate America.”
On day 257 Matt Walsh railed against conservatives who’d lost interest in the boycott, declaring that the beer company must “grovel at our feet in humiliating fashion and disavow gender ideology entirely.” On day 259 Kid Rock came under fire from right-wing media figures for saying that he forgave the company. On day 312, former President Donald Trump received the same treatment for defending Budweiser as “not a woke company.”
On day 335, Anheuser-Busch announced that the toll of the boycott to date had been $1.4 billion in lost sales. On day 347, Mulvaney posted a video reflecting on the year:
“Most of the time, I do forget how to be happy. And when I do feel happiness, it doesn’t quite reach to what it used to feel like because I remember how fucked up this world is … Happiness is something that I will wait for again, even if I’ve lost it for a little while, because I know it’s coming, and because that’s what I haven’t lost — is the hope. I still have it. And isn’t that a beautiful thing?”
On day 357, Fox News ran an interview on its website with Beer Business Daily publisher Harry Schuhmacher, who said that sales of the popular beer still had not recovered. In a world where sending money to a giant multinational corporation is considered a sign of support for LGBTQ people — in a country where money is considered legally protected speech, where the president once encouraged the terrified citizenry to stick it to the terrorists by going out and going shopping — it was perhaps inevitable that people discontented with the emergence of LGBTQ people from the shadows would reach for the same tool to show their disdain. Sensing opportunity, brands have emerged to more efficiently extract extra money from this group.
By day 366, Dylan Mulvaney had been mentioned 347 times on Fox News — a rate equal to nearly a mention per day (2024 is a leap year). There was no month in which her name went unspoken. There is no one who works harder to spread the stories of trans people than the people who hate us the most.
