My, how the tables have turned for beer industry titan Anheuser-Busch!
Two years after releasing a massive marketing campaign highlighted by drag queen and transgender activity Dylan Mulvaney that led to tanking sales, the beer giant has ditched its “woke” marketing for full Americana.
According to reports, Anheuser-Busch is now reportedly looking to rid their beers of the word “domestic,” instead wanting them all to simply say “American.”
The CEO of Anheuser-Busch is urging the beer world to kick the term "domestic" and replace it with "American." pic.twitter.com/BoX62jcSeP
— Local 12/WKRC-TV (@Local12) February 6, 2025
In a Wednesday letter titled “A Call for American Beers,” CEO Brendan Whitworth expressed his dissatisfaction with the longstanding use of “domestic” to describe American-made beer, saying it shows up on bar menus, at beer stands, in grocery aisles and is used by syndicated data providers “too frequently.”
Whitworth starts the letter with six words, “I don’t like the word ‘domestic.'”
“I’m asking the Anheuser-Busch team and our wholesalers to make the change. Change the bar menus, change the venue boards, change the signs, change their reports, change their jargon, and insist upon American. I hope other American brewers and wholesalers will join us,” he also wrote.
While the word is not “necessarily an incorrect adjective to use,” he said, it “just doesn’t fully capture the spirit and passion that’s intrinsic to the American beer industry and its brands.”
It also falls short of capturing “the pride we should all take in products made right here in this great country,” Whitworth continued.
The move comes amid a patriotic push from the White House and President Donald Trump who signed an executive order on his first day in office to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.
Whitworth — who served in the Marines before joining the CIA — was named as Anheuser-Busch chief executive in July 2021 and led the company through challenges associated with its controversial 2023 Bud Light marketing campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which sparked backlash and a significant boycott by consumers and public figures.