‘The View' Guest Discusses Backlash Following Controversy

Alright, folks, here we go again—Dylan Mulvaney is back in the spotlight, this time making the rounds to promote a new book and, of course, rehashing the whole Bud Light disaster that sent the brand into a tailspin. And where better to do it than on The View, where difficult questions are about as common as a unicorn sighting?

So, let’s rewind to April 2023, when Mulvaney posted a video showing off a Bud Light can with the influencer’s face on it, a gift from the company as part of a marketing effort to mark a full year of “girlhood.”

What happened next? Well, let’s just say it didn’t go as planned. The backlash was massive, with Bud Light customers ditching the beer in droves, and Anheuser-Busch watching sales plummet by nearly 30% in the following months.

Now, on The View, Mulvaney was asked about the whole debacle and seemed genuinely shocked that people reacted the way they did. “I didn’t think anything of it,” Mulvaney explained, saying the deal felt “organic” since they already liked beer. That’s right, folks—nothing says organic branding like one of America’s most blue-collar beer brands partnering with an influencer whose main audience isn’t exactly the Bud Light demographic.

But the most telling part? Mulvaney admitting that the controversy didn’t really register at first, only later realizing that they had become “the poster child for this thing when [being] trans is just a small part of me.” That’s an interesting take, considering the influencer’s entire brand—right down to the book being promoted—centers around transitioning.

Then came the emotional appeal. Mulvaney said the backlash was tough to handle and that writing about it helped process the experience. “People see me as this eternal optimist, but I think sometimes the people that are seen that way are often the ones that are hurting the most,” Mulvaney said.

And while that’s a sentiment plenty of people can relate to, it doesn’t exactly address the real issue—Bud Light’s marketing team failed to understand their audience, and the result was one of the biggest brand backfires in recent history.

And just in case The View got too real, the conversation pivoted to another hot-button issue: trans athletes in women’s sports. When asked about California Gov. Gavin Newsom admitting that fairness concerns exist in female athletics, Mulvaney’s response was… to dodge it completely.

Instead, the influencer cracked a joke about playing soccer at age six and assigning themselves as the team’s “nurse” with Band-Aids. That’s one way to sidestep a conversation that has real consequences for female athletes.

Meanwhile, Bud Light is still trying to recover from the fallout. Former Anheuser-Busch President of Operations Anson Frericks recently admitted that, despite major ad campaigns featuring comedians like Shane Gillis and stars like Post Malone, the brand still hasn’t won back all the customers it lost. And honestly, who can blame those customers? It turns out, when a beer brand alienates its core audience, it takes more than a few flashy commercials to fix the damage.