Joe Exotic Wades In on Bud Light Fallout, Shares Mocked-Up Budweiser Can
Incarcerated Tiger King star Joe Exotic has waded into the ongoing Bud Light falliut with a pitch to Budweiser featuring a mocked-up image of a beer can and a message about the attraction of the "world's favorite transphobic gay redneck."
Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Allen Maldonado, 60, teased Budweiser bosses with a tweet posted by his team that hinted at how its parent company Anheuser-Busch could sell more beer as customers turn away from Bud Light.
In tweet on Saturday, Maldonado's team said: "Budweiser-Try putting the world's favorite transphobic gay redneck on a can and get back to selling beer. Joe Exotic 2024."
Maldonado is serving a 21-year sentence following a conviction in 2019 on multiple charges, including two counts of hiring hitmen to murder wildlife activist Carole Baskin. He was also convicted of killing tigers and selling them across state lines.
The tweet included the message and a mocked-up Budweiser can with a photo of Maldonado next to a full-grown Tiger in place of the AB emblem at the center. It references the ongoing furor involving Bud Light, another beer owned by Anheuser-Busch.
Bud Light sales dropped significantly after the company partnered with Dylan Mulvaney, a transgender influencer and activist, in April.
The move sparked a boycott among many customers across the U.S. and has resulted in a decline in sales, despite Anheuser-Busch offering many different promotions and discounts for the brand.
Mulvaney has also hit out at Bud Light and accused the parent company of not standing with the transgender community.
The activist said in a video posted to Instagram in June: "I was waiting for the brand to reach out to me 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."
Maldonado star is running for president as a Democrat from federal prison and has challenged current incumbent President Joe Biden to a debate.
Earlier this year, Maldonado addressed Biden,
adding: "I challenge you to debate me on your failed justice and prison reform and the corruption within both systems, the climate policies, and our foreign policies; we can either be against each other or we can be allies, but what is happening to me is not right and it's your duty to make it right."
He has previously called on former President Donald Trump and Biden to pardon him, and his team has regularly claimed Maldonado is innocent on his Twitter account.
Newsweek contacted Maldonado's team via his website for comment on Sunday.