Almost three months after Bud Light made the incredibly ill-fated decision to promote trans activist Dylan Mulvaney, Anheuser-Busch has reportedly fired Group Vice President for Marketing Daniel Blake and Bud Light Marketing Vice President Alissa Heinerscheid. Writing for the Daily Caller about the fate of such executives, Henry Rodgers cited " a source inside Anheuser-Busch confirmed in texts obtained by the Daily Caller on Tuesday" in his report. Such executives had already taken leave in April.
The source is described as "a current regional head of marketing" and has plenty to share on Blake and Heinerscheid, including how they are "gone gone," with even more from there:
“To my understanding if we publicly announced the word ‘fire’ it opens up the potential for them to sue us. Thats why we said leave of absence,” the source said in a text message obtained by the Caller.
“The wholesalers would have had an absolute HAY DAY with leadership if they didn’t remove her,” the source inside the company also said.
“To be fair- Daniel Blake was actually awesome. I think he was just caught in cross fire. But also he did hire her… so that’s a fault,” the source continued.
“Wholesalers were told they are both gone for good by leadership during in person conversations. They already shifted all their direct reports to new people and the head of marketing,” the source added in another text message obtained by the Caller.
The report also contains information about Facebook photos from Heinerscheid, as mentioned in a previous exclusive report from the Daily Caller, which is described as having "included photos of Heinerscheid and others drinking and holding condoms up to their mouths." This is the same woman who just a few months ago claimed that she wanted to market the "declining" brand to "young people," and that the customer base had been "fratty and out of touch."
Bud Light has been "declining" all right, especially after the Mulvaney backlash. After months of poor sales numbers, as stores couldn't even give the beer away for free, it's no longer the top-selling beer in America. Modelo Especial is.
Alissa Heinerscheid, Bud Light’s VP of Marketing, doubles down on her extreme woke strategy to promote the “declining” American beer brand to “young people”, while smearing her former customers as “fratty and out of touch”.
— Old Row (@OldRowOfficial) April 9, 2023
How’s that working out for you, lady? @budlight pic.twitter.com/zNYKbMnZnu
An updated version of the article mentions a non-answer from Anheuser-Busch, which Rodgers said "did not address any of the questions asked by the Caller:"
“Given the circumstances, Alissa has decided to take a leave of absence which we support. In the interest of our employees’ safety and privacy, we’re not providing any additional information. Daniel is taking a leave of absence. In the interest of our employees’ safety and privacy, we’re not providing any additional information,” an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said.
Does this mean that Anheuser-Busch learned their lesson? Not necessarily. As Leah just reported on Monday, Bud Light sponsored a particularly vulgar Toronto Pride event, where children were exposed to adult content. This also comes after Anheuser-Busch kicked off Pride month by announcing it was continuing "its partnership with the National LGBT Chamber of Commerce and donate $200,000 to the business advocacy organization to support its initiative focused on the minority LGBTQ+ business community," as Leah also covered.
After all, the company still has to maintain its perfect Corporate Equality Index (CEI) score from the Human Rights Campaign that has come under threat, with those standards becoming increasingly extreme.
As Bonchie at our sister site of RedState put it best, "[t]his feels a bit too little too late," adding "[h]ad Bud Light moved to actually fire these people immediately upon the Mulvaney videos dropping, there would have been time to rescue the brand."
Perhaps this was that "wake up call" that Anheuser-Busch InBev’s global chief marketing officer Marcel Marcondes was talking about at the Cannes Lions Festival earlier this month, as they will be "moving forward as a group," though it looks like it will be without Heinerscheid and Blake.