It’s time to drop it, Dylan.
Trans TikTok influencer Dylan Mulvaney is finally speaking out on the disastrous Bud Light partnership that cost the beer giant billions in market value.
“I took a brand deal with a company that I loved. And I posted a sponsored video to my page,” Mulvaney said. “And it must have been a slow news week, because the way that this ad got blown up, you would have thought I was like, on a billboard, or on a TV commercial or something major, but no, it was just an Instagram video.”
Mulvaney says the partnership led to “bullying” and “transphobia.”
“And I should have made this video months ago, but I didn’t. And I was scared,” he said. “And I was scared of more backlash. And I felt personally guilty for what transpired. So I patiently waited for things to get better. But surprise, they haven’t really. And I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me, but they never did. And for months now, I’ve been scared to leave my house, I have been ridiculed in public, I’ve been followed.”
Mulvaney also hit Bud Light for distancing itself from the partnership.
“For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse in my opinion than not hiring a trans person at all,” he later added. “Because it gives customers permission to be as transphobic and hateful as they want. And the hate doesn’t end with me, it has serious and grave consequences for the rest of our community. And, you know, we’re customers, too. I know a lot of trans and queer people who love beer, and I have some lesbian friends who could drink some of those haters under the table. But to turn a blind eye and pretend everything is okay. It just isn’t an option right now.”
“There should be nothing controversial or divisive about working with us.”
Mulvaney also says the controversial beer can from the partnership “belongs in a museum.”
Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth recently told CBS Mornings that “just to be clear, it was a gift and it was one can” and didn’t commit to not working with Mulvaney again.
Watch the clip below:
Dylan Mulvaney opens up about how the anti-trans uproar over her Bud Light partnership has affected her mental health. pic.twitter.com/aNiFKMwf0T
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) June 29, 2023