1995: Budweiser’s iconic frogs begin to appear on TV screens
To celebrate the Ad Club of New York's 120th anniversary, The Drum is inviting readers to share their favorite marketing moments from the past 120 years.
Today we feature Budweiser’s trio of frogs – Bud, Weis, and Er – as our marketing moment. The three frogs were a staple of the Anheuser-Busch brand’s advertising efforts in the 1990’s and marked a departure from Budweiser’s more traditional, product-focused campaigns.
After first hitting TV screens across America during the Super Bowl in 1995, the frogs instantly made a splash.
According to MTV, which included the spot in a “Best Super Bowl Ads of All Time” list in 2010, the commercial “left everyone repeating the brand name for weeks until the joke got so old and stale that you just wanted to run over those damn frogs with your car.” Last year, USA Today wrote an article about the iconic ad, stating that “the spot quickly became a pop culture phenomenon.”
The ad became so recognizable that it was spoofed in pop culture, including a Simpson’s episode where an alligator eats the three frogs before croaking ‘Cooooooors.’
See the full 120 Marketing Moments in the dedicated online section and find out how to purchase the exclusive book.