Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas has taken action on an oft-overlooked aspect of Bud Light’s recent Dylan Mulvaney fiasco.
Three months ago, Cruz and Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee launched an investigation to determine whether Anheuser-Busch, maker of Bud Light, advertised its beer to minors and those below the legal drinking age when it partnered with Mulvaney.
In a Tuesday letter to Michel Doukeris, CEO of the Belgian-based Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV, Cruz noted that the brewing giant has yet to respond to the Senate’s requests for relevant documents.
Since 2008, Anheuser-Busch InBev SA/NV has owned the once-venerable Anheuser-Busch brewing company of St. Louis.
In May, Cruz directed his documents request to Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth. According to Cruz’s letter, Whitworth did not cooperate with the request.
Cruz, ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation, urged Doukeris to intervene. The Texas senator asked that Doukeris “direct Anheuser-Busch to cooperate with the investigation.”
The issue here, of course, does not directly relate to the recent conservative boycott that has torpedoed Bud Light’s profits.
Cruz’s concern involves Anheuser-Busch’s marketing tactics.
In July, the three-person Code Compliance Review Board (CCRB) of the Beer Institute, what Cruz called “an industry-funded lobbyist group representing U.S. brewers,” concluded by a 2-1 vote that “Anheuser-Busch has not violated the Beer Institute’s Advertising/Marketing Code and Buying Guidelines.”
Did Anheuser-Busch break the law?
95% (18 Votes)
5% (1 Votes)
Cruz’s letter, however, quoted the CCRB’s lone dissenter, retired Judge Paul Summers.
According to Summers, “Mulvaney appeals to persons below the legal drinking age with a ‘special attractiveness’ . . . is especially attractive to young teens and girls; is often recognized as preadolescent; and caters to very young people.”
Cruz, therefore, used a thinly veiled threat in an effort to secure Doukeris’ cooperation.
“Given your broader responsibility for the Anheuser-Busch InBev portfolio of more than 500 brands, I trust you share my sincere concern with the possibility that Anheuser-Busch is marketing alcohol to children and will direct Anheuser-Busch to cooperate immediately with the Commerce Committee’s investigation,” Cruz wrote.
Cruz’s reference to the Belgian company’s enormous portfolio of beer brands implied that federal action could have wider consequences.
“The level of cooperation the Committee receives will bear significantly on my assessment of whether this is part of a broader problem across the Anheuser-Busch InBev product line and whether changes to federal law are necessary to prohibit Anheuser-Busch InBev from marketing beer to children,” the senator added.
Bud Light drew criticism in April primarily for pushing Mulvaney and his narcissistic transgenderism on beer drinkers.
The spectacle of June’s “pride” month, however, awakened many more conservatives to fanatical LGBT activists’ alarming interest in children.
With the spectacular box-office success of Christian actor Jim Caviezel’s “The Sound of Freedom,” an anti-child sex trafficking film released in theaters on July 4, conservatives are now fully alert to a global problem involving the sexualization of minors.
Only in this larger context can we fully appreciate Cruz’s persistence with an important investigation.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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