It was one year ago, on February 11, 2023, that Dylan Mulvaney, the transgender-identifying social media influencer, posted a video of himself drinking Bud Light in a bathtub — paid promotion that permanently altered not only Bud Light’s reputation, but now also the ad standards for the entire beer industry.
While Bud Light dealt with the public outcry and a nationwide boycott over its partnership with Mulvaney, it fought a less high-profile legal battle over whether the promotion of beer by Mulvaney — who often presents on social media as an entertainer for kids — was compliant with industry standards that ban marketing alcohol to minors.
U.S. Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), both members of the Commerce Committee, wrote a letter on May 17, 2023, that sparked a formal review by the beer industry’s self-regulating body, the Beer Institute, into whether…
