Satirical article misrepresented amid Bud Light backlash

"Budweiser Brands Won't Be Welcome at Oktoberfest For The 1st Time in 75 Years," says the headline of an April 2023 article from a website called the "Dunning-Kruger Times."

The story received tens of thousands of interactions on Facebook, according to CrowdTangle, a social media insights tool. Conservative radio host Larry Elder, a candidate for president in 2024, and Jordan Peterson, a Canadian professor-turned-commentator, both shared it.

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Screenshot from Twitter taken April 25, 2023

The claims follow efforts from US conservatives to boycott Bud Light after the beer brand partnered with Dylan Mulvaney, an American actress, social media personality and transgender rights advocate known for chronicling her gender transition on TikTok.

In an April 1 Instagram post, Mulvaney promoted a $15,000 giveaway and showed a Bud Light can with her face on it, which she said was a gift to celebrate her "day 365 of womanhood."

Bud Light sales are falling as a result of the partnership, but the Dunning-Kruger Times article is fabricated.

"Everything on this website is fiction," says a disclaimer on the website (archived here). "It is not a lie and it is not fake news because it is not real. If you believe that it is real, you should have your head examined."

Article is satire

The Dunning-Kruger Times is part of America's Last Line of Defense, a network of websites that "publishes false stories and hoaxes that are often mistaken for real news," according to NewsGuard, an organization that rates websites' credibility.

The sites are run by Christopher Blair, who told AFP in 2020 that "confirmation bias" leads people to believe and share the articles.

AFP has previously debunked other misinformation stemming from America's Last Line of Defense, including the false claim that the CEO of Anheuser-Busch resigned after the Mulvaney partnership.

Several details in the Oktoberfest story indicate it is satire.

For example, the author is listed as "Flagg Eagleton" and the article falsely claims the festival is held in a fictional town called "Okto." The story also says the legal drinking age in the German state of Bavaria is nine when in reality it is 16.

No Budweiser at Oktoberfest

Stefan Dohl, an Oktoberfest spokesperson, told AFP the claims shared online are a "hoax."

"Satire is satire. But, as a matter of fact: Budweiser brands have never been served at the world's largest folk festival, Oktoberfest Munich," Dohl said.

Only six Munich breweries serve beer at Oktoberfest, according to the celebration's website -- in keeping with a centuries-old law that limits German beer brewers to four ingredients: water, barley, hops and yeast.

A spokesperson for the Munich Department of Labor and Economy, which organizes the fair, told AFP that claims of a Budweiser ban are "obviously groundless."

AFP contacted Anheuser-Busch for additional comment, but no response was forthcoming.

AFP has debunked other misinformation about Bud Light and Mulvaney in English and Spanish.