LIV Golf hires Bud Light’s woke ex-marketing exec Alissa Heinerscheid after transgender marketing campaign cratered brand

Looks like the Saudis shopped the Bud Light fire sale.

The disgraced former marketing executive who tanked Bud Light’s brand has landed a new job at LIV Golf, in an unlikely pairing between a corporate woke warrior and the controversial Saudi-backed sports league. 

LIV is staying mum about its decision to hire former Anheuser-Busch VP Alissa Heinerscheid, who has been working at the league in a “Team Business Operations” role since September, according to her LinkedIn page. 

Heinerscheid’s reputation turned radioactive after her dismissal from Bud Light, where her woke rebranding crusade — including a widely panned partnership with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney — cost the company $1.4 billion in sales and billions more in market cap.

When reached by The Post, LIV’s Chief Communications Officer Ilana Finley declined to comment on the league’s decision to hire Heinerscheid, but a former Anheuser-Busch executive said it’s likely LIV swooped in to snatch her up on the cheap. 

“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’s who has since founded a venture capital company told The Post.

Frericks, who addressed the brand’s recent woes in his new book “Last Call for Bud Light,” wrote that Heinerscheid was “one of DEI’s chief proponents” at the company, and “never made a secret of her progressive politics” in the years they worked together.

But he told The Post the hire isn’t necessarily a sign LIV wants to go woke — it’s just a win-win for both parties. 

“LIV is already inherently controversial, and that probably makes it difficult in some cases to recruit top talent,” Frericks said, noting the league’s Saudi funding. “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.

Others weren’t so quick to cheer for Heinerscheid’s career mulligan after her high-profile whiff at Bud Light.

“The lady that almost single-handedly destroyed the Bud Light brand is now at LIV Golf. Huge win for the PGA!” tweeted one user. 

“If you find yourself out of a job, remember, there’s always an opportunity out there for you,” wrote Matt Reigle on Outkick. “Heinerscheid helped engineer one of the most brain-dead marketing campaigns in human history, and she got another job within a year. You’ll be fine.”

News of Heinerscheid’s new gig picked up traction on X earlier this week, almost exactly two years since she helmed Bud Light’s ill-fated team-up with Mulvaney, which led to a months-long boycott of the all-American beer brand. 

The PR fiasco infuriated customers, who shunned the brewskis so ferociously that Bud Light was dethroned from its perch as America’s top-selling beer — and remains in third place today, behind Modelo and Michelob Ultra. 

The fallout led to profit losses of up to 30%, declining shelf space in stores, company layoffs and permanent damage to the beloved decades-old brand. 

Amid the backlash to the disastrous campaign, Heinerscheid was hammered for comments that surfaced from a podcast interview in which she revealed her intentions to make Bud Light more woke. 

On the pod, the then-VP knocked the beer’s reputation as “fratty” and “out of touch,” and touted “inclusivity” and “representation” as the keys to transforming Bud Light’s image. 

Bud Light’s parent company Anheuser-Busch, placed Heinerscheid on leave in April 2023 in response to the controversy. The ex-exec’s LinkedIn page shows she left the company permanently in November 2023. 

Reached via text, Heinerscheid did not respond to The Post’s request for comment. 

Pro golfer Greg Norman, LIV’s former CEO responsible for getting the league off the ground in 2022, also declined to comment on Heinerscheid’s hire when reached by The Post. 

The typically outspoken Aussie golf legend remains on LIV’s board of directors since handing over the reins to current CEO Scott O’Neil.