After two decades as the top-selling beer in America, Bud Light had achieved mythological status. Launched by Anheuser-Busch (later, AB InBev) in 1982, the adjunct lager became a fixture at barbecues, birthday parties, and even baby showers across the country, outselling its competition by legendary margins. Its champion status was divine mandate — or so it seemed.
In June, a confluence of investment, advertising, PR mishaps, and cultural churn capitulated into a dynastic shift in the beer industry. For the first time since 2001, a new beer took over as the most popular beer tracked in retail channels by NielsenIQ: Modelo Especial.
Everyone from the most vocal pundits to the least articulate drunkles had a take on why the country’s de facto light beer was relegated to second place. There was shock and gravedancing. Floods ravaged Ukraine, wildfire smoke turned the New York skies vermillion, and yet it was the new king of beer sales sitting atop the docket for the national news.
Some saw the news as an indicator of ABI’s inability to keep up with drinkers’ diversifying beer tastes. Some attributed it to demographic shifts in the American drinking public. Even more heralded it as karmic justice for Bud Light’s coziness with trans activist Dylan Mulvaney. The truth is, Bud Light’s downfall has less to do with Bud Light and more with a tactical misjudgment of the import category as a whole.
Yes, Bud Light took an L, but what makes this L legendary is what delivered it:
