Ted Cruz Makes New Demands of Bud Light as the Beer Brand Circles the Drain

Sen. Ted Cruz is demanding answers from Bud Light, the troubled beer brand that has faced strong opposition from its customers base following its promotion of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney. 

As RedState has reported extensively (click here, here, and here), Bud Light has seen a marked decline in sales as the backlash has continued far longer than anyone expected. We are a long way from Donald Trump Jr. telling Republicans they should leave the beer brand alone back in April. 

Now, Cruz is pouring salt in the wound, and perhaps justifiably so by sending a letter to Bud Light in a gambit to investigate whether the Mulvaney marketing violated any laws. 

BREAKING: @SenTedCruz has sent a letter to @AnheuserBusch, demanding that the woke company cooperate with the Senate Commerce Committee's on-going investigation into if @BudLight's sponsorship of Dylan Mulvaney was the brand marketing alcohol to children. pic.twitter.com/ZV6QA8hNlQ

— Will Hild (@WillHild) August 17, 2023

Cruz’s argument essentially comes down to an allegation that the videos Mulvaney made promoting Bud Light have a “special attractiveness” to children. That is evidenced by the fact that Mulvaney has a large underage audience given he’s a mentally ill man who pretends to be a “girl.” 

Bud Light had initially refused to turn over documents to Congress, citing a CCRB (a lobbying board for beer brewers) investigation into the matter. That has concluded, and Bud Light is still not cooperating with Cruz’s probe. 

With that said, while I’m a big fan of Ted Cruz, I’m not sure there’s much fertile ground to till here. Does Mulvaney appeal to children? Absolutely, and that’s a problem, but so do many other influencers and celebrities who market for beer companies. Proving that Bud Light was purposely trying to market beer to children is likely an impossible task.

Besides, I honestly don’t think that was the company’s goal. Rather, the woke marketing executives who pioneered the Mulvaney partnership were simply trying to do what most major corporations are trying to do these days: Appeal to a tiny fraction of the population to signal a commitment to ESG. 

With that said, I’m not necessarily against Cruz garnering the documents in question, even if I have my doubts about where they will lead. These corporations only react to pressure. The only way to keep that pressure up is to keep them busy reacting. It’s not just about Bud Light learning a lesson. It’s about all corporations seeing what’s happened to Bud Light and learning the same lesson. Is that a libertarian viewpoint? No, but the new rules are in effect.