Anheuser-Busch CEO Brendan Whitworth wants beer to be labeled American made: I dont like the word domestic

Anheuser-Busch is encouraging its distributors and partners to replace the term “domestic” with “American” when marketing beer, arguing that the term better reflects the industry’s identity.In a Wednesday letter titled “A Call for American Beers,” CEO Brendan Whitworth expressed his dissatisfaction with the longstanding use of “domestic” to describe American-made beer, saying it shows up on bar menus, at beer stands, in grocery aisles and is used by syndicated data providers “too frequently.”Whitworth starts the letter with six words, “I don’t like the word ‘domestic.'”“I’m asking the Anheuser-Busch team and our wholesalers to make the change.Change the bar menus, change the venue boards, change the signs, change their reports, change their jargon, and insist upon American.

I hope other American brewers and wholesalers will join us,” he also wrote.Whitworth is also calling on marketing and research firms such as Circana and Nielsen to do so as well.While the word is not “necessarily an incorrect adjective to use,” he said, it “just doesn’t fully capture the spirit and passion that’s intrinsic to the American beer industry and its brands.”It also falls short of capturing “the pride we should all take in products made right here in this great country,” Whitworth continued.The move comes amid a patriotic push from the White House.President Donald Trump signed an executive order on his first day in office to rename the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America.

Whitworth did not mention Trump’s executive order in his letter.Whitworth — who served in the Marines before joining the CIA — was named as Anheuser-Busch chief executive in July 2021 and led the company through challenges associated with its controversial 2023 Bud Light marketing campaign featuring transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney, which sparked backlash and a significant boycott by consumers and public figures.Whitworth tried moving beyond the co...