BUD

Welcome back to Toy Aisle, io9's regular roundup of the latest and coolest merchandise around. This week, Harley Quinn’s classic Batman: The Animated Series look gets an awesome new figure, Guardians of the Galaxy’s animal heroes hit the spotlight, and a new collection brings the cars of Fast and Furious to your shelf. Check it out!Spoilers of the Week April 24-29Image: MondoMondo Batman: The Animated Series Harley Quinn Sixth-Scale Figure (Timed Edition)Every new take on Batman is just a reminder that the Dark Knight…

The maker of Bud Light said it would triple its U.S. marketing spending on the brand this summer and is providing financial support to front-line teams and wholesalers who have taken the brunt of a backlash to a company promotion with a transgender influencer.  Bud Light’s delivery drivers, sales representatives and independent distributors have been confronted by angry people on the streets, in bars and in stores. “They are our neighbors, family members and friends. They are in every community in…

The maker of Bud Light is working to make amends with its distributors, who say they have taken the brunt of the backlash to a company promotion with a transgender influencer. Anheuser-Busch InBev , the country’s largest brewer, has pledged to boost its marketing spending on Bud Light, accelerate production of a new slate of ads, and give a case of Bud Light to every employee of an Anheuser-Busch wholesaler, distributors said.  The maker of Bud Light is working to make amends with its…

Transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney spoke out in a social-media video weeks after her sponsorship with Bud Light ignited calls to boycott the brand, prompting the beer maker to put two executives on leave. “I’ve been offline for a few weeks and a lot has been said about me, some of which is so far from my truth that I was like hearing my name and I didn’t even know who they were talking about sometimes,” she said in a 3½-minute video posted Thursday night. Transgender influencer Dylan…

On Friday, Anheuser-Busch InBev, the parent company of Bud Light, placed two of its marketing executives on leave after public outcry from conservative corners over the beer brand’s partnership with a transgender influencer.The move follows weeks of controversy, including a video of Kid Rock shooting cases of Bud Light and calls for a boycott backed by conservative figures including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. Here’s everything you need to know.Who is Dylan Mulvaney? Dylan Mulvaney is a transgender influencer and actor…

The maker of Bud Light, after coming under fire for a social-media promotion with a transgender advocate, is now being criticized internally and externally by people who say the company didn’t support its own marketing manager when she came under attack. Anheuser-Busch InBev SA placed on leave the executive overseeing Bud Light marketing, Alissa Heinerscheid, as well as her boss, Daniel Blake. And it named a replacement for Ms. Heinerscheid in the Bud Light role. Sales of Bud Light have slumped in…

Bud Light’s partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney has led some conservative critics to call for a boycott, generating headlines and social-media posts including a video of musician Kid Rock shooting a rifle at cases of the beer, but such campaigns often have failed to deliver a meaningful blow.Many social media-fueled boycott efforts do no material damage to the businesses in question, studies suggest, and may even have an opposite effect by increasing awareness and briefly…

Howard Stern usually isn’t at the center of hot-topic conversations anymore, but the notorious shock jock has inserted himself into America’s culture war over LGBTQ visibility by challenging Kid Rock and other conservatives to explain why they are so incensed about transgender star Dylan Mulvaney’s partnership with Bud Light. During the Monday episode of SiriusXM’s “The Howard Stern Show,” the radio host said he was “dumbfounded” over the strong backlash aimed at Anheuser-Busch, which produces Bud Light, over Mulvaney, a…

Kid Rock posted a video of himself on Monday shooting up a stack of Bud Light cases amid backlash over the beer brand’s partnership with actor and transgender rights activist Dylan Mulvaney. Mulvaney, a comedian and musical theater actor based in Hollywood, has been sharing her gender-transition journey over the last year via the episodic TikTok series “Days of Girlhood.” To celebrate her 365th day of the series, Bud Light sent Mulvaney a can with her face on it. When Mulvaney shared a video on Saturday announcing the…

Budweiser brewer Anheuser-Busch InBev SA BUD -0.74% reported a fall in sales volumes for the fourth quarter as drinkers in North America bought less of the company’s beer amid rising prices. The drop comes as companies across the consumer-products industry grapple with how much they can raise prices to offset rising costs without deterring shoppers. For much of the past year, AB InBev said drinkers weren’t giving up their brews despite…