Shares in Belgian-Brazilian brewer AB InBev tumbled 18% in May, their biggest drop since the start of the pandemic in March 2020.
The slide was due to a call for a boycott in the United States of the company’s Bud Light beer.
This blacklisting, which has been going on for around eight weeks, began when AB InBev teamed up on social media with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer, for a promotional campaign targeting Bud Light beers.
Since then, an anti-transgender media storm has been raging, with conservative America calling for a boycott of the beverages.
The result? Sales of Bud Light have collapsed and the boycott has even spread to other AB InBev brands, whose volumes are also falling.
Investors now fear the controversy will also weigh on the third-quarter figures of the brewer.
The US accounts for a quarter of AB InBev’s revenues and 30% of its profits.
