Why I like the Budweiser anti-craft beer Super Bowl commercials

For the second year in a row Budweiser Super Bowl commercials have taken punches at craft beer.  Last year they talked about how their beer was “made the hard way” and bragged that they didn’t make pumpkin peach beers… even though they had just purchased Elysian, who did make a pumpkin peach beer.  This year they rambled about how their beer isn’t imported, isn’t meant to be sipped (that’s probably for the best), and wasn’t a “fruit cup”, complete with a burly guy flicking a fruit wedge off his glass.  Another bit of irony considering they also ran ads for their Shocktop brand, whose mascot is a talking, mohawked orange slice.  Even more ironic is that some of the offerings in the Shocktop line include apple, pumpkin wheat (sans peach), lemon shandy, and raspberry wheat.  That actually sounds like one hell of a fruit cup.

Now I’m sure there are some folks out there that will argue these are two different companies, two different brands, with two different advertising goals.  What-ever.  The fact of the matter is that Big Daddy AB InBev owns them both, along with a lot of other craft breweries, so it’s amazingly hypocritical to mock these brands and companies while at the same time trying to acquire as many of them as you can. For a company bragging about their non-fruit cuppy, don’t sip ’em, non-imported beers they sure do own a lot of companies that make beers that would fit all of those categories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rF711XAtrVg

But I ain’t mad at Bud, let them do their thing.  I know their commercials aren’t aimed at the people drinking craft beer in the hopes that they’ll switch to Bud, because they know that’s not going to happen, as evidenced by, ya know, all the craft breweries they keep buying.  Their commercials are aimed at the people who are drinking their beer now in the hopes they’ll believe they are already drinking the best beer they can get, so they won’t leave them for craft beer.  I think that’s kind of funny, and really awesome.  If Bud didn’t see craft beer as a threat they wouldn’t feel the need to target their marketing to mock it.  I miss the 80’s, 90’s, and early-2000’s when we got dogs, and frogs, and wassssuuuup.  Sure, they gave us Seth Rogen and Amy Schumer talking about their big caucus, but they’re no Spuds MacKenzie.

So, these “attack ads” are actually a good thing in my opinion.  If their ads were targeted to push people away from craft beer that didn’t seem to work, since craft beer market share continues to rise.  It’s a very small percentage of overall beer sales, but again it is on the rise, from 5% in 2010 to 11% in 2014.  It seems Bud has turned their marketing to more of a stop-the-bleeding program.  I’m not delusional to think that craft beer is going to topple Big Beer, but I’m sure we’ll see another rise when 2015’s numbers come in.  Bud will see this as well, so I imagine we’ll continue to see these types of ads.  Bring it on, Bud, we’re not backing down either.

Budweiser Super Bowl

https://beerguysradio.com/2016/02/08/budweiser-super-bowl-2016/https://beerguysradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Bud-Not-For-Everyone-1024x457.jpghttps://beerguysradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/Bud-Not-For-Everyone-150x150.jpg2016-02-08T11:17:37-05:00Tim DennisFeaturesBig Beer,Budweiser,Budweiser Super Bowl,Shocktop,Super BowlFor the second year in a row Budweiser Super Bowl commercials have taken punches at craft beer.  Last year they talked about how their beer was 'made the hard way' and bragged that they didn't make pumpkin peach beers... even though they had just purchased Elysian, who did make a pumpkin...Tim DennisTim Dennistgdennis@gmail.comAdministratorCo-Host of the Beer Guys Radio Show. Georgia beer advocate, all around craft beer fan, homebrewer, and troublemaker.Beer Guys Radio Craft Beer Podcast