April 6, 2023
Right-Wing Rage Bubbles On with Travis Tritt Boycott of Bud Light Company
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
Suds might be best when ice-cold, but the anti-trans right continues boiling over because Bud Light partnered with trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney. Country star Travis Tritt is the latest example of warmed-over wrath, with the 60-year-old country star declaring that he's "deleting" products from Bud's parent company, Anheuser-Busch.
The New York Post reported that Tritt took to Twitter on April 5 to declare he would "be deleting all Anheuser-Busch products from my tour hospitality rider.
"I know many other artists who are doing the same," Tritt added, later posting that those "others" might not speak up for fear of their pushback receiving pushback in turn.
"In full disclosure, I was on a tour sponsored by Budweiser in the '90s. That was when Anheuser-Busch was American-owned," Tritt, 60, wrote.
"A great American company that later sold out to the Europeans and became unrecognizable to the American consumer. Such a shame," he continued.
Between times, Tritt served up a second round of anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment, this time taking aim at Jack Daniels for partnering with "RuPaul's Drag Race" stars two year ago for a "Summer Glamp" campaign.
The spray of social media hate followed a blast of transphobia unleashed by Kid Rock, who donned a MAGA hat and took up arms against a few cases of Bud Light in order to deliver a "clear and concise" statement that consisted of weapons fire and a raised middle finger.
"Fuck Bud Light. And fuck Anheuser-Busch," the musician said in the video, which was posted to Twitter. "Have a terrific day."
The trigger for so much macho posturing: Trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney having "shared a sponsored post on her Instagram account promoting Bud Light's March Madness contest," NBC News reported, with the post going up "the day of the women's final and the day before the men's championship".
Bud Light even gifted the influencer with "a beer can with her face printed on it to celebrate her 365 days of being a woman – something which angered the singer," UK newspaper the Daily Mail noted.
Response from the transphobic right to Mulvaney's April 2 post was swift and fraught with spillage, NBC News detailed, as "countless videos have been shared online showing consumers dumping their Bud Light products in trash bins and down sinks – and even violently destroying cans of the beer."
"Anheuser-Busch works with hundreds of influencers across our brands as one of many ways to authentically connect with audiences across various demographics," a company spokesperson told NBC News.
The latest wrinkle in the ongoing tempest in a beer cup "comes after the controversial star signed her third deal in a week with Nike Women, causing backlash on the sports brand following the Bud Light saga," the Daily Mail added.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.