Anheuser-Busch executives appear to have denied that the company fired two top advertising and marketing executives who were found guilty of Dylan Mulvaney’s disastrous Bud Light marketing campaign.
The Everyday caller The beer giant has officially fired group vice president of marketing Daniel Blake and Bud Light vice president of marketing Alyssa Heinerscheid, according to reports on Tuesday, citing text messages with an unidentified company’s regional advertising and marketing management.
Blake and Heinerscheid were announced to be taking a “vacation leave” amid backlash over their determination to portray a trans TikToker in the March Madness industry.
And when approached by DailyMail.com earlier this month, a good friend of Heinerscheid’s said: “she can’t talk about it, she can’t.”
But in a statement to DailyMail.com, a spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch said they had been “on vacation” after all.
Bud Light VP of Marketing Alyssa Heinerscheid and Group VP of Marketing Daniel Blake will leave.
Their departure comes amid a backlash against a controversial March Madness ad featuring trans TikToker Dylan Mulvaney
“Given the circumstances, Alyssa has decided to take a leave of absence, which we support,” the spokesperson said, including that Daniel can “take a leave of absence.”
“In the interest of the security and privacy of our employees, we are not releasing any additional information.”
The claim echoes that of Anheuser-Busch executives in April, when it was announced that the two advertising and marketing chiefs had “decided” to step down for a short time.
“Given the circumstances, Alyssa has decided to take leave, which we support. Daniel has also decided to take a leave of absence,” the company said at the time.
But questions remained about their sudden departures, especially when Anheuser-Busch executives later claimed that the decision to work with Mulvaney was made “by an outside agency without management’s knowledge or approval.”
Reports surfaced Tuesday that Heinerscheid and Blake have been officially fired from their positions at Anheuser-Busch, with an unidentified source at the Daily Caller only saying the executives were on “leave” to avoid legal action.
“I think it opens them up to sue us if we say the word ‘fire’ publicly. So we determined go away,” the supply stated, including “Wholesalers would have had an absolute HAY DAY with management if they (Heinerscheid).
“The wholesalers were told in private conversations that they were both gone for good,” the supply claimed. “They’ve already moved all their direct reports to new people and the head of marketing.
He added that he thinks Blake is “really amazing.”
“I think he just created a crossfire,” the delivery man pointed out. “But he also hired her, so it’s a mistake.”
When DailyMail.com approached her with claims she hadn’t thought about the marketing campaign, Heinerscheid (left) refused to comment, but a good friend stated “she can’t discuss it” earlier than she was taken away.
It’s unclear if Heinerscheid is paid, but she joined in 2022 and vowed to refresh her image.
Blake is a nine-year veteran of Anheuser-Busch and has overseen the advertising and marketing for each Bud Light and Budweiser.
He served as group vice president of marketing for Budweiser and Value Brands before being promoted to vice president of core brands at Anheuser-Busch in May 2022. In addition, he had served the company as vice president of the company’s valuable manufacturers.
In his role, Blake was responsible for hiring Heinerscheid to overtake Bud Light’s advertising and marketing in June 2022 with an imaginative and forward-thinking refresh.
Just months before the company released the controversial ad, Blake heralded a “new era of Bud Light” in a tweet about the beer’s “sophisticated” determination to feature a female lead in its Super Bowl ad. to take.
A publication on LinkedIn shortly earlier than additionally talked about how “everyone is connected by the same values of American Spirit and of course Budweiser”.
During a podcast previewed a few days earlier than Mulvaney’s partnership was introduced, Heinerscheid stated that Bud Light was down when she took over last summer to right the ship.
Meanwhile, Heinerscheid spoke about his technique for overcoming Bud Light’s “crazy” popularity and tapping into newer drinker technology in an interview just days before the Dylan Mulvaney ad was released.
‘I am an enterprising lady. After buying Bud Light, I definitely had to work, and that’s exactly the pattern that’s going down,” she stated.
“It’s been in decline for a long time. And if we don’t get young drinkers to come and drink this brand, there’s no future for Bud Light.”
“So I had this very clear mandate. It’s like we have to develop this incredibly iconic brand and take it to the next level.
What does it mean to develop and rise? It means inclusiveness. It means changing the tone. This means a campaign that is truly inclusive and feels lighter, brighter and different. And likes women and men.
And representation. Is it some kind of evolutionary heart? You need to see people who mirror you at work.
And we had hangovers. I mean, Bud Light was kind of a joke, kind of deadpan humor, and it was really important that we had a different approach,” she stated.
In a previous interview with Forbes, she gave an identical mandate.
“As the first woman to lead the world’s largest beer brand, this is a great opportunity to really grow Bud Light, a brand that I love, and take it to the next level.
“This campaign is meant to feel different, to be lighter and brighter, with confidence and appeal, and it’s really important to portray real people and real places,” she stated.
“What I have to do to help this brand grow… that’s my passion.”
Heinerscheid’s job was succeeded by Todd Allen, who most recently served as Budweiser’s international vice chairman.
The once-popular brewer suffered its worst week of gross sales since teaming up with Mulvaney, 26, to celebrate her 365th day as a lady, falling 26.8% for the week ending June 10.
But Bud Light continues to bear the brunt of Dylan Mulvaney’s advertising and marketing marketing campaign, with gross sales down 26.8% for the week ended June 10, its worst performance since the week in early April for the same reason.
That’s a deeper drop than the week ended June 3, which saw a 24.4% drop, according to Bump Williams Consulting and NielsenIQ. The new low surpasses the previous low of nearly 26% in the week ended May 25.
It comes after Bud Light misplaced its crown as America’s best-selling beer to Modelo, a Mexican lager brewed by Grupo Modelo, which may be owned by Bud maker Anheuser-Busch.
Anheuser-Busch’s various US manufacturers, together with Budweiser, Michelob Ultra and Natural Light, have additionally skilfully reduced their gross sales for this controversial reason. Bud is down 10%, while Natty Light and Michelob are down 2.3% and a couple of .4% respectively.
