The top marketing executive for Bud Light parent Anheuser-Busch InBev received an award for “creative marketer of the year” at the “Oscars for the advertising industry” — despite the beer brand’s disastrous partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.
Marcel Marcondes told advertising peers at the the Cannes Lions marketing conference in France on Monday that the Mulvaney saga served as a “wake-up call” for the industry.
But like fellow Anheuser-Busch brass, Marcondes stopped short of offering an apology for the Mulvaney partnership — which the company has blamed on an unnamed third-party marketer.
“In times like this, when things get divisive and controversial so easily, I think it’s an important wake-up call to all of us marketers, for us to be very humble,” Marcondes said.
AB InBev is “really reminding ourselves of what we should do best every day, which is to really understand our customers, which is to really celebrate and appreciate every customer that loves our brands, but in a way that can make them be together, not apart,” he said.
Marcondes, who has been at AB InBev for almost two decades, was named the winner of the annual award before the Mulvaney controversy erupted in earl April, though there were whispers that it would have been best for him to decline the prize in light of the boycott, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Anheuser-Busch InBev has lost nearly $20 billion in value since Mulvaney posted images and video touting Bud Light.
The Mulvaney posts sparked anger from many who vowed to boycott Bud Light and its sister brands.
The intensity of the backlash cost Bud Light its status as the nation’s most popular beer in May, according to the latest sales figures.
Bud Light was supplanted by Modelo Especial, the Mexican lager whose international distribution is controlled by AB InBev but whose US operations are owned by Constellation Brands.
Brendan Whitworth, who heads AB InBev’s US operations, said Bud Light’s parent company will cut checks to reeling wholesalers and distributors.
Whitworth said “the discussion surrounding our company and Bud Light has moved away from beer” as he announced a three-step plan to revive the tarnished brand last Thursday.
He offered a financial olive branch that involves “investing to protect the jobs of our frontline employees” and launching a new ad campaign this summer that will tout the beer as “easy to drink, easy to enjoy.”
“We are providing financial assistance to our independent wholesalers to help them support their employees,” Whitworth said.