Video of steamroller destroying beer cans not related to Bud Light controversy

Anheuser-Busch, the company that manufacturers Bud Light, has faced intense anti-trans backlash online in recent weeks over its partnership with social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney. 

Mulvaney, who is transgender and has publicly documented her experience transitioning online, posted a video on April 1 announcing her partnership with Bud Light. The controversy over the partnership has led to multiple false claims, including that Anheuser-Busch’s CEO resigned and the entire marketing team was fired. 

More than a week after Mulvaney’s announcement, viral videos shared on Twitter claim to show a steamroller destroying cans of Bud Light amid a boycott of the brand. 

“Bud Light gets steamrolled,” one post claims, with a video captioned “Doing what needs to be done.”

THE QUESTION

Does the video show a steamroller destroying cans of Bud Light in April 2023?

THE SOURCES

• InVid, a footage forensics tool
• Armando Nieblas, a journalist in Mexico
• News report written by Nieblas on Feb. 28
• Photos shared by government officials in Mexicali, Mexico
• Google Maps

THE ANSWER

No, this video does not show a steamroller destroying cans of Bud Light in April 2023. The video was shot in Mexico in February and shows several brands of beer being destroyed, not just Bud Light. It is unrelated to the current controversy surrounding Bud Light.

WHAT WE FOUND

The video was not taken in April 2023, as the social media posts imply. It was taken in February and shows government officials in Mexico destroying tens of thousands of beer containers that were seized during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

VERIFY used InVid, a footage forensics tool, to search for the original video. One of the replies on a viral post led us to a video shot by Armando Nieblas, a journalist in Mexico.

Nieblas first posted the video on Twitter on Feb. 28, 2023. He identified the location as Mexicali in Baja California, Mexico. A longer version of the video was posted to YouTube on the same date. 

The video shows a variety of beer brands apart from Bud Light, including others owned by Anheuser-Busch and Heineken.

Photos shared by government officials in Mexicali via Facebook on Feb. 28 also show the same person in the viral videos using a steamroller to destroy the beer containers. 

In a follow-up tweet shared on April 10, Nieblas wrote that his February 2023 video is now being “used as part of a disinformation campaign” by people protesting against Anheuser-Busch for including a transgender woman in Bud Light’s advertising campaign.

The original video was taken at the Fair and Exhibition Center (FEX), located on the Calazada de los Presidentes, Nieblas confirmed in an email to VERIFY. 

We verified the location using Google Maps street view. 

At the beginning of a video shared on Twitter, a building that appears to be an arena can be seen in the background. That same building is visible on Google Maps’ street view of the Fair and Exhibition Center. 

Nieblas wrote in a news report published on Feb. 28 that government officials in Mexicali destroyed more than 85,000 beer containers that were seized in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

KTSM, a news station in El Paso, Texas, reported that beer was deemed “non-essential” in Mexico during the COVID-19 pandemic. When the country ran out of popular brands, some people stocked up on beer in the U.S. and brought it back to Mexico. 

Mexican authorities then began conducting inspections of cars heading into the country, leading to the confiscation of many cases of beer. The confiscated beer, which was kept at a government-owned facility, was destroyed in 2023 after it was deemed a health hazard due to the presence of rats, spiders and insects, KTSM reported.