One Year Later: How Bud Light's Dylan Mulvaney Fiasco Pushed Beer Industry To Rewrite Its Ad Standards - Trans influencer could have to delete Bud Light posts that blatantly violate new beer industry guidelines

It was one year ago, on February 11, 2023, that Dylan Mulvaney, the 
transgender-identifying social media influencer, posted a video of 
himself drinking Bud Light in a bathtub — paid promotion that 
permanently altered not only Bud Light’s reputation, but now also the 
ad standards for the entire beer industry.

While Bud Light dealt with the public outcry and a nationwide boycott 
over its partnership with Mulvaney, it fought a less high-profile legal 
battle over whether the promotion of beer by Mulvaney — who often 
presents on social media as an entertainer for kids — was compliant 
with industry standards that ban marketing alcohol to minors.

U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), both members 
of the Commerce Committee, wrote a letter on May 17, 2023, that sparked 
a formal review by the beer industry’s self-regulating body, the Beer 
Institute, into whether Bud Light was targeting minors through its ads 
with Mulvaney.

Mulvaney posted just twice as a Bud Light partner, first on February 11 
in the bathtub timed with last year’s Super Bowl and then again on 
April 1 for March Madness, with the latter post generating the outrage 
that cost the company billions of dollars. The company first reviewed 
the possibility of hiring Mulvaney in December 2022 and went on to pay 
him a reported $185,000 for the two posts.

The senators in their letter state that Mulvaney was brought on as part 
of Bud Light’s strategy to “attract young drinkers” and pointed to his 
several posts aimed at children, including one in March, right in the 
middle of his two posts for Bud Light, in which he posed as a 6-year-
old children’s book character named Eloise.

	@dylanmulvaney
	Childhood dream unlocked ?? #eloise #plazahotel

	? Eloise – Emily Christine Peterson

The charge was reviewed by the Beer Institute’s “Code Compliance Review 
Board,” which in a July decision found that Bud Light did not violate 
its Advertising and Marketing Code. But just two months later that code 
was quietly revised — the Advertising and Marketing Code that beer 
companies are required to adhere to now includes new language on social 
media influencers that would appear to forbid any brewer from working 
with Mulvaney.

The guidelines also appear to mandate that Bud Light go back and 
reassess the Mulvaney posts based on the new standards.

The updated standards state that a brewer must conduct “after-the-fact 
audits” at least twice a year of all its influencer placements. “If a 
Brewer learns that an advertising placement did not meet the Code’s 
audience demographic standard,” the Beer Institute states, recommended 
steps include having the post removed.

The standards at the time of the initial review made no mention of 
influencers, and Bud Light’s parent company, Anheuser-Busch, used that 
to say it wasn’t responsible for reviewing influencer posts, and didn’t 
with Mulvaney. The company told the review board that influencer 
campaigns are “unique” because the content is “not controlled by the 
brewer,” but rather the “influencers develop their own content and post 
it on their own page.”

That’s no longer an acceptable process. The new standards, which were 
announced in a September 28, 2023, press release but received no media 
attention, say that social media influencer content needs to be held to 
the same standard as other ads.

The standards were updated just weeks after Cruz urged action in an 
August 15 letter in which he bemoaned the lack of standards for social 
media posts. “It is concerning, for example, that brewers do not 
prescreen branded content by social media influencers,” Cruz wrote, 
noting Bud Light’s initial defense that influencer posts were “unique.”

The guidelines state that social media posts can only be placed where 
at least 73.8% of the audience is of legal drinking age — the same 
standard as for traditional advertisements — and that “age-gating 
measures” must be used if available.

Not only do independent analyses of Mulvaney’s audience call into 
question whether his audience is sufficiently composed of drinking-aged 
adults, but there is no indication that Mulvaney is using Instagram’s 
age restriction tools. The Daily Wire signed up for an Instagram 
account stating that it was underage and was able to access his Bud 
Light promotion.

While Anheuser-Busch stated in its initial defense of the Mulvaney 
posts that it conducted an “audience composition study” and found that 
roughly 80% of his audience was 21 or older, its review appears to be 
insufficient. The company conducted a single analysis when it first 
engaged with Mulvaney in December 2022 and used it to justify both 
posts in the coming months.


Beer companies are required, however, to continually analyze the 
audience of their influencers. If Bud Light had, it would have likely 
learned that Mulvaney wasn’t an acceptable option.

An independent analysis conducted on the publication date of this story 
by The Daily Wire using Modash, a leading influencer analysis products, 
found that over half of Mulvaney’s followers are 24 or under — 7.95% 
are aged 13-17, and 45.32% are aged 18-24. It is impossible to know the 
exact composition of his followers based on Instagram’s data because 
the cutoff date for alcohol, 21 years old, is right in the middle of 
the 18-24 segment. But if just half of the 18-24 portion were under 21, 
then Mulvaney would fall below the acceptable threshold.

Cruz, in his August letter that appears to have prompted the updated 
standards, cast serious doubt about assumptions made by Bud Light in 
its audience review. One complaint stated by the Texas senator is that 
Bud Light guessed the proportion of 18-24-year-olds that were actually 
over 21 based on an assumption that users are evenly distributed by age 
— it only counts 42% of that group as underage — even though there is 
no evidence to suggest that’s the case.

It’s likely the case that there are far more young people on Instagram 
than its data suggests. The social media platform relies on the honesty 
of users to determine their age, with little to no age verification 
tools. Surveys show that minors regularly lie about their age to obtain 
social media profiles. It is therefore likely that the studies 
overstate the number of users who are adults.

It is unclear whether Anheuser-Busch has conducted a single analysis of 
Mulvaney’s audience since its initial review before the posts, even 
though the new standards require it to.

Anheuser-Busch did not respond to a request for comment on the Mulvaney 
posts, and whether it has reviewed them since the updated standards 
were released. Mulvaney also did not respond to inquiries.

The Beer Institute declined to comment on whether any action has been 
taken regarding Mulvaney’s posts since the standards were updated, and 
whether any action is required.

“The Code Compliance Review Board, an independent review board convened 
by the Beer Institute, has already carefully assessed the posts and 
determined that there was no violation of the Beer Institute 
Advertising and Marketing Code,” a Beer Institute spokesman told The 
Daily Wire, a statement that disregards the fact that the Advertising 
and Marketing Code was amended after the review.

Cruz warned the Beer Institute in his August letter that a failure to 
take his concerns seriously would force him to legislate away the 
industry’s self-governing situation.

“There are currently no federal laws against advertising alcohol to 
minors, in part because of the beer industry’s professed commitment to 
self-regulation,” Cruz wrote. “As Ranking Member on the Commerce 
Committee, it is my duty to ensure that the Beer Institute’s private 
regulatory regime is working; if it is not, then our Committee may be 
forced to consider legislating to protect consumers, including 
impressionable children.”

Cruz made clear in his latest letter on the topic that the Beer 
Institute’s absolvement of Bud Light doesn’t mean his inquiries will 
end. The industry trade group’s board of directors, after all, is 
currently chaired by Brendan Whitworth, the CEO of Anheuser-Busch.

Bud Light has continued to grapple with its reputation in the year 
since affiliating its brand with the transgender influencer. It is 
reportedly using this year’s Super Bowl as an opportunity for a “brand 
revival.”

Both of Mulvaney’s posts tagged with “#budlightpartner” remain 
unaltered on Instagram.

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Let's go Brandon!