Bud Light offers gimmick promotion over July 4 holiday — and customers may end up with free beer

Anheuser-Busch is running a fourth of July holiday promotion to persuade customers to buy Bud Light and Budweiser beers.

Customers will be given a $15 rebate for purchases of a 15-pack of Bud Light, Budweiser, Budweiser Select, or Budweiser Select 55 made between June 15 and July 8. The rebate will be paid out via a digital card.

That means in areas of the country where you can purchase a 15-pack for less than $15, Anheuser-Busch is paying customers to take its product. The company offered the same promotion over the Memorial Day holiday as Bud Light sales have cratered over a controversial sponsorship with transgender activist Dylan Mulvaney.

In fact, sales plunged 28.5% for the week ending June 17, a new low for the company. The dismal figure and sales gimmick comes after Modelo Especial dethroned Bud Light as America's No. 1 beer.

Anheuser-Busch is trying hard to repair the Bud Light brand.

CEO Brendan Whitworth, for example, sent a message to customers earlier this month, "We hear you." In that message, Whitworth promised to focus company efforts on making good beer, not wading into the culture war. Whitworth, however, did not offer customers an apology.

Last week, Anheuser-Busch InBev global chief marketing officer Marcel Marcondes admitted the boycott has been a "wake-up call" that marketers need "to be very humble."

Still, the controversy is spilling over to other Anheuser-Busch brands. Along with a 28.5% decline in Bud Light sales, sales of Budweiser dropped 12.3%, Busch Light dropped 8.1%, and Michelob Ultra dropped 4% for the week ending June 17.

Modelo's sales, on the other hand, continue to climb, as do sales of Miller Light, Coors Light, and Yuengling Lager.

Anheuser-Busch has not revealed the status of the marketing executives who took leaves of absence in April after the boycott began. The Daily Caller, however, reported Tuesday that both have been quietly terminated.

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