Bud Light’s parent company will not explicitly say whether the two marketing executives behind a partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which sparked a months-long boycott of Bud Light, no longer work for the company.
Alissa Heinerscheid, vice president of marketing for the beer brand, and Daniel Blake, the vice president overseeing Anheuser-Busch’s mainstream brands, were said by the company to have taken a leave of absence in April following the backlash.
However, text messages purportedly from a source within the company, obtained by right-wing news and opinion website The Daily Caller, appear to suggest that this was a ruse to avoid legal action and that the two had now been let go.
The outlet reported on Tuesday that the two marketing executives had now departed the company permanently. The anonymous source told the online outlet: “To my understanding if we publicly announced the word ‘fire’ it opens up the potential for them to sue us. That’s why we said leave of absence.”
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In a statement to Newsweek on Wednesday, an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson appeared to maintain that both had only taken a leave of absence, but would not say definitively whether they had since been let go as employees.
“Given the circumstances, Alissa has decided to take a leave of absence which we support,” they said. “Daniel is taking a leave of absence.”
The spokesperson added that they would not be providing further information “in the interest of our employees’ safety and privacy.”
Asked multiple times whether Heinerscheid and Blake were still employees of Anheuser-Busch, the spokesperson did not respond.
Newsweek approached Blake for comment via direct message on Thursday. Contact details for Heinerscheid could not immediately be found.
Heinerscheid was subject to personal attacks over the decision to send a commemorative can to Mulvaney to celebrate the influencer’s first year of transitioning to being a woman, which sparked outrage against Bud Light and cries of the beer brand going “woke.”
Anheuser-Busch was accused of alienating its traditional customer base with the partnership, while some in the LGBTQ+ community have also slammed the company for not defending its ties with Mulvaney.
Heinerscheid was Bud Light’s first female marketing lead, and shortly before the partnership came to light, she told a podcast that she viewed the brand as “fratty” and “out of touch” with young drinkers, arguing that to prevent the drink’s decline meant “having a campaign that’s truly inclusive.”
Since the boycott of the brand began, sales revenues declined rapidly before settling at more than 20 percent lower than weekly sales in the same time last year, with much of this absorbed by Bud Light’s competition.
However, while the boycotters celebrated her and Blake’s removal, brand strategists criticized the moves as appearing like “knee-jerk” reactions that only prolonged the backlash.
The anonymous source told the Daily Caller that Blake had been “awesome,” but was also said to be responsible for hiring Heinerscheid, which they described as “a fault.”
The source also claimed that the company’s wholesalers “were told they are both gone for good by leadership during in-person conversations.”
In early May, Anheuser-Busch invited its Bud Light wholesalers to a meeting to discuss the impact of the boycott on sales, The Wall Street Journal reported at the time.
It is unclear whether Heinerscheid and Blake were placed on temporary leave before supposedly being let go, or were placed on gardening leave in April. Nor is it clear when each of their contracts may have ended.
