Budweiser's Ken Griffey Jr. All-Star Merch Slammed Amid Bud Light Boycott

The furor surrounding Budweiser, and Bud Light in particular, is showing no signs of abating. A partnership featuring Budweiser and Major League Baseball [MLB] legend Ken Griffey Jr. has been criticized for its merchandise.

Bud Light's parent company Anheuser-Busch was accused of "desperate" marketing over its Fourth of July ad featuring Kansas City Chiefs' Super Bowl winning star, Travis Kelce. This followed a sustained backlash to the beer brand's partnership earlier in the year with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney.

Now Budweiser has faced a heap of negativity after announcing merchandising linked to its Father's Day promotion involving Griffey Jr.

Many commenters have said that the damage had been done with the Mulvaney controversy and the beer brand's response to being accused of alienating its traditional customer base with the partnership. Some in the LGBTQ+ community have also slammed the company for not defending its ties with Mulvaney.

In a July 6 tweet, Budweiser USA announced the collaboration with the MLB great, telling its followers: "Look like an All-Star. Introducing the Budweiser x Ken Griffey Jr. All-Star Collection."

The Budweiser ad was made by award-winning director LeSean Harris and saw Griffey Jr. recounting memories over a cold beer with his father, Griffey Sr. It shows their unbreakable bond and, with Junior giving a voiceover, features archival footage of their baseball careers.

While the nostalgia-tinged promo looked to pull at heartstrings, the announcement of the merchandise has not had the same effect, with many taking to social media to continue their anti-Budweiser stance.

One Twitter user commented: "Not after the Dylan Mulvaney collection." Another added bluntly: "Just apologize."

A third agreed with that sentiment, telling Budweiser: "All you have to do is say you are sorry."

There was more disappointment, with another replying to the brand's tweet: "Ugh loved the shirt till I saw the company behind it."

A former executive at Anheuser-Busch has dismissed the company's response to Dylan Mulvaney's criticism that it did not support the transgender influencer during the boycott of the beer brand.

Anson Frericks, the former president of Anheuser Busch Sales & Distribution Company, called for the resignation of the current U.S. CEO Brendan Whitworth over his handling of the boycott.

Speaking to Fox Business' Ashley Webster on July 3, Frericks said Mulvaney was right in her statement condemning the company. He added that "Bud Light is trying to be everything to everyone, and now they are being nothing to anyone."

In an Instagram video, Mulvaney addressed the boycott and the company's response.

"I took a brand deal with a company I loved, and I posted a sponsored video to my page and it must have been a slow news week because the way that this ad got blown up, you would have thought I was on a billboard or on a TV commercial, or something major. But, no, it was just an Instagram video," Mulvaney said.

"I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me [after the boycott], but they never did and for months now, I've been scared to leave my house... For a company to hire a trans person and then not publicly stand by them is worse, in my opinion, than not hiring a trans person at all."

Griffey Jr. played 22 years in the MLB, where he spent most of his career with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds.

He is a 13-time All-Star and a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame after being one of the most prolific home-run hitters in baseball history. He hit 630 home runs over his career, which puts him seventh in the MLB records.

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