Ted Cruz Accuses Bud Light of Using Transgender Dylan Mulvaney to Push Alcohol on Underage Consumers
Jun. 15 2023, Published 6:30 p.m. ET
Texas Senator Ted Cruz accused Bud Light of intentionally partnering with transgender TikTok creator Dylan Mulvaney to promote alcohol to minors, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Cruz's accusation was the latest attack from a Republican lawmaker on Mulvaney and Bud Light's parent company, Anheuser-Busch.
In April, Bud Light faced backlash after they sent a personalized can to Mulvaney as a congratulatory gift for her one-year "girlhood" anniversary, a nod to the TikTok series that launched her fandom.
While Bud Light did not sell or distribute the Mulvaney beer can, outrage and calls to boycott the brand ensued.
On Wednesday, Cruz sent a memo related to a previous letter, co-authored with Sen. Marsha Blackburn, to Brendan Whitworth, U.S. CEO of Anheuser-Busch and chairman of the Beer Institute's Code Compliant Review Board (CCRB), accusing Bud Light of withholding information about the Mulvaney partnership.
The senator claimed the brand's motivations violated laws that prohibited alcohol from being marketed to minors.
According to the Daily Mail, Cruz accused Bud Light of falsely claiming on a May 4 company call that the Mulvaney partnership was "one can, one influencer, one post and not a campaign."
"In fact, Anheuser-Busch employed Mulvaney to advertise and market Bud Light on multiple occasions," Cruz stated in his memo before pointing to a February post from Mulvaney that featured Bud Light products.
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"On February 11, 2023, Mulvaney posted a video on Instagram with the caption #budlightpartner," the memo continued. "The video showed Mulvaney dancing in a bathtub with an open can of Bud Light, a stack of Bud Light cans in the background."
Cruz took offense to Bud Light's alleged refusal to "age gate" the partnership.
Instagram's parent company, Meta, had parameters to address content not intended for underage audiences. The policy required Instagram creators to "block all U.S. users under the age of 21 from viewing branded content promoting or referencing alcohol."
Cruz claimed that Bud Light's lack of transparency on the partnership was concerning due to Mulvaney's "special attractiveness" to those under the legal drinking age of 21.