Yesterday, Dylan Mulvaney broke her silence: https://www.tiktok.com/@dylanmulvane...55134087449898.

For context, this is a trans influencer who built a 10 million strong following on TikTok. She took a brand deal with budweiser to post an ad on an instagram, and the anti-trans right went absolutely ballistic, calling for a boycott, condemning the company, and to some perhaps unknowable degree it influenced that Budweiser sales dropped by a 1/4 and the stock price tanked. Dylan speaks more personally about the effect of the hatred on her.

What strikes me about this story is that it is just about visibility. This isn't inclusion in sports or gender-affirming care for minors, it was just that a trans person was visible. This wasn't even visibility in a TV commerical that a poor right-winger is forced to see, it was an ad on her own instagram page. We're all in our own social media algorithm influenced bubbles, but from my vantage point it really has seemed that in the last year or so things have just gotten worse for trans people and the backlash to even minor visibility is growing.

We need to do better.

Fwiw I've had some Budweiser since this whole thing started. And a crap ton of Heineken which is also inbev.

I'm proud of you. Yes, conservatives not realizing the shitty beer they replaced their buds with was the same company was one of the amusing details of all this

Yet you have no issue using the phrase poor right winger insulting a group you do not like ? Personally I didn't care but I know folks on the left that stopped buying bud light as well.

I did find it as a strange strategy as are not most of her followers under the legal age of drinking ?

Also keep in mind the interview with the marketing manager came out kind of insulting the regular beer drinker


What do you think we need to do better at ?

Well no that's probably not the case. Miller Lite and Coors Lite are the closest equivalents to Bud Light and those aren't Inbev. Although apparently Modelo picked up the most market share, which is only owned by Inbev outside of the US while within the US it's a different company, Constellation brands-- not sure how that works.

Lol. That is quite the false equivalence there lozen.


This is a good example of how when a trans person does something these double standards magically come up that never come up otherwise. All sorts of regular commericals and ads for budweiser are going to be seen by people under 21. I have zero clue what percentage of her massive audience is children, but it is entirely irrelevant given how of course ads are regularly seen by people under 21.

Stop treating trans people differently, lozen.

Ive said many times all the power to her in her brand and lifestyle. I have said multiple times I would not boycott the product but have no issue in folks that choose to boycott the product.

Most boycotts do not last but this one seems as strong as way back to the Dixie Chicks now known as The Chicks

Maybe Bud should come out with a Pro Choice or Pro Life can and see how that works out for them .

Bottom line from a marketing decision it was a terrible one

I am not sure how I am treating trans folks differently . I have some opinions that may not concur with yours so be it

Buds best ad to bail themselves out should have been this

This is pretty gross. Characterizing trans people existing as a social fad like satanism is fundamentally delegitimizing them. While it is great that some trans people are finally able to be out in our society, a lot of the attention "dominating the media landscape" is because of anti-trans folks. For instance, this story shouldn't be a story. A social media influencer did a brand deal on her channel? The mountain of hatred - and response to that hatred like this thread - is on the shoulders of the right which makes it rather rich to suggest that people like I am the problem for bringing it up.

Who knows that this tortured jenga analogy is trying to do, but let's be real, this is all because a trans person was visible enough to get a sponsored ad on her feed? That's the jenga block too far? Really? Imagine being the snowflake who was so offended by mere visibility of trans people to their own followers, not even a linear TV ad or whatever, that your tower of hatred is going to collapse.

Perhaps you should do some real soul searching to discover why this is the case. If you think there is "no issue" with the anti-trans right having a massive conniption over the fact that a trans influencer did a sponsored post in her feed for a brand, then you are part of the problem.

Maybe so, but it really, really, shouldn't have been and is a testament to where we are at at a society that this actually caused financial problems for them. It is utterly abhorrent that mere visibility of a trans person to their own audience which in a normal world would be a great marketing decision suddenly becomes a liability because of all the right wing hate and apologists for said right wing hate like you.

As I explained, I don't believe you'd ever give that argument of "how many of her followers are drinking age" and apply it to any advertising that wasn't from a trans person. Do you make this point when Budweiser advertises on a linear TV station that will have people under 21 watch it? Or is this ONLY an argument you bring out when it is a trans person?

I feel like if it were any other trans person people wouldn't care as much. Like if Caitlin Jenner got a can it wouldn't be a big deal at all.

I don't think the overwhelming majority of those all upset that a trans person got a sponsored ad knew anything about who Dylan Mulvaney beyond - maybe - that she is a trans social media star, if that. Her main sin seems to be just that she is wildly successful in social media.

If Bud had launched cans saying Pro Life or Pro Choice you think the response would be any different.

I am approaching it from a marketing point and poor poor Dylan I'm sure she received a healthy check and had to know there would be some backlash .

That you think this is a good comparison is part of the problem. Trans people existing shouldn't be controversial. Trans people being visible in society shouldn't be controversial. This isn't one of the more divisive topics within trans right that we've talked about in this forum like trans inclusion in youth sport, it is just the mere concept of a trans person visibly drinking a beer.

It seems you didn't watch her video. You should. It's powerful. But one of the thing she says in it is that because this was just an instagram video on her own feed not a billboard or a TV show ad going to a mass market, that she didn't exist this and it was "more bullying and transphobia than I could have ever imagined". I know the anti-trans right you apologize for is utterly despicable, but honestly even myself I was surprised by the size of the backlash and I'm sure Budweiser was as well. This should have been totally and utterly innocuous, but it is a reminder of how deeply transphobic our society is right now that it wasn't.

Our job is to utterly reject that pushback.

lol he's got his ideas. give unto Caesar that which is his.

im interested in it from the need for visibility and vigil

Yes I did watch her video and alot of the things she says I am sure Riley Gaines is going through as well. You seem to not have the same respect for her rights to feel safe or the bullying or hate she receives .

I have not said one word bad about Dylan nor have I misgendered her. I have applauded her business sense and how she makes a living .

Perhaps take a moment for some empathy before immediately turning it into some whataboutism false equivalency.

I didn't watch the TikTok, but I don't think this has anything to do with visibility. The market share dropped because many Bud Light drinkers don't want to be associated with that person. If she had an endorsement with a product they don't consume, I'm pretty sure those Bud Light drinkers wouldn't care.

If Ben & Jerry's hired Donald Trump as a spokesman for some reason, I'm sure there would be backlash from their customers. The Trump fans could claim this is an outrage and cancel culture and the crazy libs just don't want him to be visible, but maybe some people just don't want to be associated with that guy?

It's ok not to want to be associated with or identify with someone. That's not the same as denying their right to exist or be heard or be visible.

The reality is this was just one of the all time dumbest marketing moves in history.

And there you dismissed Riley Gaines it's why I dismiss much of what you say. You believe in your ideology and all the power to you .

You identify the inherent transphobia precisely. That a trans person get's a sponsored post to their own audience on their own feed is just objectively not forcing anybody to be "associated" let alone "identify" with the trans person. It's a targeted ad. Just like millions of other targeted ads, heck I've done sponsored posts in my own social media. Nobody bats an eye. But because she is trans, these anti-trans culture warriors decided that this was some bridge too far they had to get all up in arms about. These people don't get a monopoly on who is allowed to enjoy shitty beer.

The reason I use "visibility" as a word here is because when a trans person becomes "visible" to society, this is when the backlash starts. It's the same for, say, Ellen Page as it is for Dylan Mulvaney. She could have just stayed entirely in her own lane and not marketed to her followers, but by gaining enough visibility that she gets this sponsored video now the backlash occurs. It's despicable.



Indeed. However, Donald Trump is not just a random person, he is a politician and probably the most prominent/controversial politician of our time. That is somebody that SHOULD spark outrage and should be expected to. The outrage about Dylan Mulvaney was just because she was trans. Her being trans was enough to make it a controversy, which is the problem.


Maybe so, it certainly cost them money. However, it SHOULDN"T be dumb. It should be just utterly innocuous that a trans person is visible in an ad. Maybe you are right, and having a trans person advertise your product to their audience is a terrible marking decision, but we aren't going to become a better society by letting the transphobes win and forcing trans people out of the advertising industry until they finally become less awful.

Not following you down every one of your whataboutisms is not the same thing as dismissing her. This thread isn't about Riley Gaines. Riley Gains isn't a trans person experiencing costs for being visible. If you want to start a thread about Riley Gaines go ahead. But the two scenarios are vastly different.

No there not the difference is you want to us to feel sympathy for a social influence that make huge $$$ and you couldn't give a crap about what happens to Riley Gaines and probably endorses what is happening to her

Again, if you want to litigate your vapid speculation about my unspoken feelings on Riley Gaines, go start a thread about her. Remember, our moderator insists that threads on only trans topics remain on topic. I'm not going to chase you down every single whataboutism you throw up.

IN-DEPTH: Tide Is Turning on Tolerance for Transgender Ideology

Article here that's apropos for this thread. I only super skimmed it but I'm pretty sure the article makes the point that the Bud Light stuff is part of a larger trend.

It's in the Epoch Times which may or may not be the paper owned by the Korean cult so if that bothers anyone I would suggest not opening it.

I am mostly grunching this thread for now. Uke, I dont think your heart is in the wrong place, but I think maybe you picked the wrong wagon to hitch on too. When all the noise started several "provocative" videos like this came out from this person, including when they were just a flamboyant gay man, and through their transition.

Independent of their gender identity, this person comes across as very narcissistic and attention seeking, and frankly it is very easy to see why a lot of people would be offended. And this is independent of the "trans" issue.

I am sure in the far reaches of right wing twitter there would have been a virulent response to any trans person being associated with Bud Light. But I think if they had chosen someone that was more respectful and blatantly less attention seeking and narcissistic, as a whole this could have gone very differently.

As an example, I don't know their name (I'll look it up, and edit thread if I can) but there is a black trans person who who does a lot of award shows and promotional stuff. They are flamboyant but come off across a lot more genuine and respectful. IMO, if Bud Light had gone with them instead of Mulvaney I think this might have gone very differently.

Presumably you didn’t watch a year of her videos, so I guess this is one of those games where someone else on social media sourced for you the video they were most offended by so their followers could join in on being offended?