The marketing executive responsible for the ad campaign that led to a steep decline for America’s former top-selling beer appears to have landed a second chance.
Alissa Heinerscheid, a former vice-president at Anheuser-Busch, has reportedly been working with LIV Golf since September 2024.
Her LinkedIn profile indicates that she has taken on a role in “Team Business Operations” at the Saudi-funded breakaway golf league.
Heinerscheid spearheaded Bud Light’s controversial rebranding campaign, which included a highly criticized partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney in 2023.
The rebrand was met with significant backlash, resulting in an estimated US$1.4 billion drop in sales and a sharp decline in the company’s market value.
Once the best-selling beer in the U.S., Bud Light fell to third place behind Modelo and Michelob Ultra.
The campaign’s aftermath led to as much as a 30% loss in profits, employee layoffs, and lasting damage to the brand’s reputation.
When contacted by the New York Post, both Heinerscheid and LIV Golf’s chief communications officer Ilana Finley declined to comment.
A former Anheuser-Busch executive told the outlet that LIV likely saw an opportunity to bring Heinerscheid on board at a lower cost.
“My guess is that LIV was probably able to get somebody relatively inexpensively to come join them and take some of her experience working at the biggest beer company,” Anson Frericks, a former colleague of Heinerscheid who has since founded a venture capital company, told the Post.
Frericks noted that the hiring doesn’t necessarily indicate LIV Golf is embracing a progressive agenda; instead, it’s more likely that both parties viewed the arrangement as mutually beneficial.
“LIV is already inherently controversial, and that probably makes it difficult in some cases to recruit top talent,” Frericks said. “So, she gets an opportunity to redeem herself, and LIV gets the opportunity to have somebody who has experience managing billion-dollar brands. Alissa obviously made a mistake, but, frankly, I believe in second chances and am rooting for her,” the ex-colleague added.
Frericks, author of Last Call for Bud Light, described Heinerscheid as “one of DEI’s chief proponents” at the company and noted that she was always open about her progressive political views during their time working together. This makes her move to LIV Golf appear unusual, given Saudi Arabia’s strict laws concerning the LGBTQ community.
Heinerscheid also faced criticism during the Bud Light controversy for remarks she made about the brand’s image, calling it “fratty” and “out of touch,” while emphasizing “inclusivity” and “representation” as central to its rebranding strategy.
