Bud's Sorry Super Bowl commercial

[Anodyne]

Over the last couple of years, I've listened to people who enjoy good beer trying to convince me and themselves that A-B InBev's acquisition of craft beer brands is an overall not-bad, even good, thing.

Then yesterday we get the Bud ad hoping to score anti-snob points by mocking beer that...has flavor. White guys in cardigans, with creative facial hair and Warby Parker glasses sipping samples of non-piss colored brew (Rude! I don't have creative facial hair). Some middle-aged dork sniffing a porter or stout in what looks like a wine glass (Uh, that 's a tulip glass, perfect for capturing delicate hop and grain aromas). A wine glass! lol A specific call-out of a "pumpkin peach ale" (OK that sounds horrible).

Was Bud trolling itself? Their latest acquisition (Elysian from Seattle) had a recent "pumpkin peach pecan" release. Anyway, it's an interesting market approach. Kinda like all the Americana that Bud wraps itself in, even though...it's really not.

Here's an article about the ad, and a cranky response from one of the Elysian people (the guy who got out-voted on the In-Bev acquisition---I'm sure he will cry himself to sleep on his pillow stuffed with Ben Franklins).

 

[anon_ph7vrsh7abnty]

I'm in the middle on this ad.

I will defend them against the notion that you are or will ever be their target market.


If I was running a focus group, we'd throw out your commentary. That doesn't mean your opinion isn't valid. It's just not relevant to the target.
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[A$$hole Consulting]

I'm pretty sure they weren't targeting effeminate men.
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[Anodyne]

Originally posted by Adverpoke:
I'm in the middle on this ad.

I will defend them against the notion that you are or will ever be their target market.


If I was running a focus group, we'd throw out your commentary. That doesn't mean your opinion isn't valid. It's just not relevant to the target.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

Oh I never thought I was the target audience. I'm just amused at InBev's apparent response to the growth of craft sales: enter the market through acquisition of craft brands, on the one hand, while spending $8 million or whatever on a commercial that mocks craft beer, on the other.

There's been a few outlets calling out the 'hypocrisy' (I don't think that's the best word for it), so I wonder how effective the ad was. Not that it's a dead Nationwide kid, or anything. You obviously know better than I---do you think the 'anti-snob' thing still a viable marketing strategy when it comes to food and bev? KFC Double-Down notwithstanding.

The impact of craft beer on the macros has been interesting. Remember when Miller Lite had the whole 'brewed with triple hops' or whatever? And I'm pretty sure I saw a Bud campaign not long ago featuring actual brewers sampling and sniffing Bud from the bright tanks, while going on about beechwood aging and whatnot.

The craft beer crowd deserves an occasional skewering. Another odd campaign: a 'fake' blind taste test of a 'hot new craft beer' for some tattooed-bearded snobs. They love it! So balanced, good malt backbone and just enough aroma hops blah blah. What Kickstartered nano-brew can this be? Revealed: AHA! IT'S SAM ADAMS, YOU JERK! Embarrassed dudes: 'Perhaps it is time that I revisit good ole Sam Adams...' I actually think that one is pretty effective, especially considering the an ongoing cleaving of the 'Big Craft' (Sierra, Sam Adams, New Belgium, Lagunitas) from the broader craft movement. Prior to that Sam Adams had a series of ads that featured un-photogenic brewers in Wellington boots fondling barley while dissertating about secondary fermentation and krausen, or something.

Random note: Boston Beer Co makes more off cider sales (Angry Orchard) than Sam Adams.

I'm always interested in the dominant trend that emerges in Super Bowl ads each year. A couple years ago, they were very violent, and more misogynistic than usual. This year they were saccharine, or as one of my Twitter people said, 'Like one long PSA.' Not a lot of sex, except for Kim K mocking herself (and something about a bronze-cast bra and Farmville, and maybe a Carl's Jr?).

 

[Anodyne]

Originally posted by squeak:
I'm pretty sure they weren't targeting effeminate men.
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That's mean. Are you saying this because I haven't posted in the Katie Perry thread yet?

Did you cry about the Budweiser puppy? I didn't. I laughed, then cursed the screen when the puppy came home.

This post was edited on 2/2 5:55 PM by Anodyne

 

[anon_ph7vrsh7abnty]

Major corporations "sabotaging" their own sub-brands is nothing new. However, social media has done a good job of keeping them in check when they are clearly speaking out of both sides.


I once worked on Kohler and Sterling at the same time. They are the same company with very different targets. It can be a challenge to do good work but not too good to upstage the bigger name brand.

I currently work on a few brands that require the same restraint.


I'm going to guess they expected customers to point out the conflict. If they didn't, they are much dumber than normal.
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[anon_ph7vrsh7abnty]

This was the year of Dadvertising.

It's much harder to take risks these days. The days of one guy giving the go ahead are pretty much extinct. For larger brands, we often answer to at least 10 different people. One idiotic ment can ruin a brilliant idea.

Creativity becomes more and more frail the bigger a business becomes.
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[Anodyne]

Originally posted by Adverpoke:
Major corporations "sabotaging" their own sub-brands is nothing new. However, social media has done a good job of keeping them in check when they are clearly speaking out of both sides.


I once worked on Kohler and Sterling at the same time. They are the same company with very different targets. It can be a challenge to do good work but not too good to upstage the bigger name brand.

I currently work on a few brands that require the same restraint.


I'm going to guess they expected customers to point out the conflict. If they didn't, they are much dumber than normal.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

I was only half-joking about Bud trolling itself.

The more damning thing (but not really related) is that they spent all that coin to run the exact ad made by the exact agency for Carhartt not long ago. Like, exact:

Carhartt: boom-chucka-boom '90 MINUTE. TENNIS. LESSONS' chucka-boom
Bud: boom-chucka-boom 'PUMPKIN. PEACH. ALE' chucka-boom

Got that observation from comments on the Paste article about the ad. Might be on to something with your last sentence.

 

[A$$hole Consulting]

I apologize for my insensitive remarks.

I thought the dog commercial was lame.

I appreciated the commercials aimed at Dads. Every show on TV these days makes out to be dumbasses and it really pisses me off. It feels like a conscious effort to effeminize men. In reality, dads phucking rule.
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[anon_ph7vrsh7abnty]

Beer brands have stolen a lot of content from other people for their ads. Just ask "The Whitest Kids You Know."
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[Anodyne]

Originally posted by squeak:
I apologize for my insensitive remarks.

I thought the dog commercial was lame.

I appreciated the commercials aimed at Dads. Every show on TV these days makes out to be dumbasses and it really pisses me off. It feels like a conscious effort to effeminize men. In reality, dads phucking rule.
Posted from Rivals Mobile

I was feigning offense so don't worry about it.

The dad thing was interesting for sure. The sensitive dad is a can't miss: what dad wouldn't identify with those strong emotions, and what woman doesn't see the sensitive dad and get all happy? Like Adver said, that's a sweet spot for the risk-adverse. Too bad about that dad that let the flat-screen crush the Nationwide kid. One dad ad had a clever poke at gender normativity---where the dad starts to cry when his daughter joins the army. What was with the ad with the Harry Chapin song, 'Cats in the Cradle?' I missed it but my wife said it was all about being a great dad, even thought the song has a much darker tone ('My boy, was just like me!' And then he dies I think).

 

[hollywood]

I would have grown up to enjoy a Bud or possibly even a nice craft brew. But I died.
This post was edited on 2/2 10:19 PM by hollywood

 

[A$$hole Consulting]

It was a Nissan commercial. He lived, but yes it was weird.
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[FMPoke]

No Harry doesn't die in the song. His kid just grows up to be too busy for him just like he was when his son was a kid. By the way the lyrics are actually a poem written by Sandy Chapin his wife. In real life Harry was killed before is son was ten.

The commercial was a little weird. I assumed the kid was going to "borrow the car" and become a race car driver like his dad instead dad just picks him up at school. What was that all about?

 

[Ostatedchi]

My initial thought from the Budweiser 'craft beer' advertisement was that it was awesome. Good quality craft beer must be winning if Bud feels the need to respond to its growth.

Oh, and Sam Adams makes some pretty solid beers.

 

[CarrolltonPoke]

Originally posted by Ostatedchi:
Good quality craft beer must be winning if Bud feels the need to respond to its growth.

This is my take. Fizzy yellow beer commercials used to be designed to convince people not to drink other fizzy yellow beers. More recently there were some commercials that promoted beer drinking in general. This is because they were worried about continued market share loss to premixed liquor drinks like Smirnov Ice, etc. The fact that they are targeting craft beer shows you what they are worried about.

 

[MegaPoke]

I liked the one where Machette played Jan Brady. Snickers right?

And I took the Budweiser commercial to be a naked and somewhat offensive appeal to Joe six pack - who probably prefers craft beer but can't afford it.

It felt like a give up move, conceding taste to the kind of beer only pussies and ****** drink. Real men drink straight forward, mass produced, watery beer.
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[MegaPoke]

Adverpoke I would be very interested in your take on Samuel Adams' overt sponsorship and likely influence in the production of "Sons of Liberty."
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