Tags: bud light | dylan mulvaney | boycott | ad agency

Ad Agency Behind Bud Light Fiasco Fires Top Execs

Ad Agency Behind Bud Light Fiasco Fires Top Execs
Dylan Mulvaney attending alice + olivia by Stacey Bendet Spring 2024 presentation during New York Fashion Week in New York, Sept. 9, 2023. (Efren Landaos/AP)

By    |   Wednesday, 11 October 2023 02:35 PM EDT

Captiv8, the California ad agency behind Bud Light’s disastrous Dylan Mulvaney marketing campaign, has fired 30 employees, about 20% of its workforce, the New York Post reports.

This is on top of the San Mateo company’s canning of 13 staffers in July upon their return via private jet from a junket to the French Riviera, at which the firm received an award for the Bud Light campaign at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

While it isn’t immediately clear whether the shakeup was a direct result of the social media posts that cost Bud Light its two-decade-long standing as America’s No. 1-selling beer, insiders say the cringe-worthy campaign was a factor.

“I’m guessing that Dylan Mulvaney contributed,” one laid-off executive told the New York Post. “They weren’t laying people off before [April 1].”

Captiv8 reportedly introduced the transgender influencer Mulvaney to Bud Light.

Krishna Subramanian, CEO and founder of the agency, told remaining staffers on a Zoom call after the layoffs on Sept. 28 that they were due to a “reorganization,” sources said.

Several of those who were axed were department heads, according to one of the sources.

Insiders hinted that Captiv8’s profligate spending could also have contributed to the layoffs. “All of us have watched Captiv8 spend a lot of money on parties,” another fired worker said. “Lavish spending has been consistent with this company.”

At Cannes in the South of France, Captiv8 plastered social media with photos of the company’s top brass, along with clients and influencers, living it up on yachts.

Captiv8 said the trip was “paid for in tandem with our brand partners and clients, having no impact on the company’s overall bottom line.”

Captiv8 declined to comment for the Post on the latest round of layoffs. Subramanian, who launched the company eight years ago, did not respond to an email request for comment.

© 2025 Newsmax Finance. All rights reserved.


StreetTalk
Captiv8, the California ad agency behind Bud Light's disastrous Dylan Mulvaney marketing campaign, has fired 30 employees, about 20% of its workforce, the New York Post reports.
bud light, dylan mulvaney, boycott, ad agency
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2023-35-11
Wednesday, 11 October 2023 02:35 PM
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