Bud Light
Bud Light is a light (low alcohol) beer introduced in 1982 as Budweiser Light, and known exclusively as Bud Light by late 1984. It is Budweiser's flagship low-calorie beverage, advertised as a light beer with 4.2% ABV and 110 calories per 12 US fl oz (355 mL) serving (1,300 kJ/L).
Launching at Super Bowl XIX in 1985, the "Gimme a Light" ad campaign propelled, by 1994, the brand beyond Miller Lite, the original category definer.
From 1993 to 1998, Bud Light aired 30-second commercials featuring Rob and Laura from the CBS series The Dick Van Dyke Show. The Bud Light King and Queen along with the Bud Knight characters were later created for commercials.
On April 1, 2023, Bud Light sent transgender social media personality Dylan Mulvaney custom Bud Light cans featuring her face to celebrate the anniversary of her "365 Days of Girlhood" series, which documented her gender transition. In response, several notable figures on the American right called for a boycott of the company.
On April 14, 2023, Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth released a statement saying, "We never intended to be part of a discussion that divides people." Whitworth's statement was characterized by The Washington Post as a "vaguely apologetic statement [that] satisfied seemingly no one." On April 20, 2023, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre spoke out against the rhetoric of "violence and vitriol" against transgender Americans by those boycotting the beverage. In late April, a spokesperson for Anheuser-Busch said that two executives – Bud Light's vice president of marketing and her boss – would take leaves of absence.
In the month following the advertisement, Bud Light sales dropped between 11 and 26 percent. During a May 4, 2023 conference call with investors, Anheuser-Busch InBev's CEO Michel Doukeris said the drop in Bud Light sales "would represent around 1% of our overall global volumes for that period". Doukeris also said that the company would triple Bud Light's advertising budget in the upcoming months in an attempt to recover billions of dollars of lost sales.
In June 2023, Bud Light announced that as promotion for the 2023 4th of July weekend, they would be offering $15 coupons on purchasing 15-pack Bud Lights, which means the beer could be nearly free via some stores that sell it at a discount lower than $15.