Sen. Cruz Lays Out Evidence Showing Bud Light-Dylan Mulvaney Partnership Aimed at Minors

Press Release

"Anheuser-Busch stated in its May 19th letter that "[a]t the time of the engagement, available data indicated that Mulvaney's Instagram audience complied with the Beer Institute's standards." However, the brewer has refused to provide Sens. Cruz and Blackburn with any data to support this claim. Anheuser-Busch has refused to comply with the document requests outlined in the senators' May 17th letter, including the request for any material "showing the age demographics of Dylan Mulvaney's audience, including but not limited to the platforms of Instagram and TikTok." Anheuser-Busch also failed to specify when its engagement with Mulvaney began--a notable omission given the now-discovered February 11th post […]

"Neither of the Mulvaney-Bud Light posts in question included a "paid partnership" label for branded content, in violation of Instagram rules. And, as a result, Mulvaney and Anheuser-Busch might not have access to the granular data they otherwise would have, especially if the posts in question had been run as "partnership ads," which would have allowed the creator and business to target users under the age of 21. Instead, Mulvaney's Instagram account may currently only show Instagram Insights audience demographics for the last 90 days--well after the date of the engagement.

"Instagram's lack of sufficient age verification measures means that official metrics may not account for young people who lied about their age when making an Instagram account; the data could overstate the percentage of viewers above the legal drinking age. Instagram also groups persons between the ages of 18 and 24 into a single demographic category, which elides the percentage of viewers who are above and below the legal drinking age of 21."

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