Budweiser’s Super Bowl ad tells a new generation: ‘This Bud’s for you’
What do Kevin Bacon, Metro Boomin and working-class people all have in common? They all drink Bud, apparently.
Budweiser is hoping to make its mark on Super Bowl LVII by reviving one of its most famous taglines: ‘This Bud’s for you.’ It is positioning itself as the beer that brings people together and is hoping to catch the eye of a younger audience.
The brand’s gameday ad, released this morning, follows a six-pack of Budweiser as it travels from a liquor store to a backyard barbecue. In the process, it is divided among six people hailing from a diversity of backgrounds and representing a variety of hustles. The title of the new spot, ‘Six degrees of Budweiser,’ is meant to analogize the six-pack with the concept of six degrees of separation, which holds that any individual person can be connected with anybody else on the planet by a maximum of six social connections.
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The ad is narrated by actor Kevin Bacon – who, incidentally, is the subject of a board game called “Six degrees of Kevin Bacon.” There’s one other celebrity appearance: Grammy-nominated hip-hop producer Metro Boomin, who’s seen recording a song in a bedroom. (Metro also produced the soundtrack for the ad.) But the other five stars of the ad are not so well-known; there’s rapper PineappleCITI, an amateur basketball player, a construction worker, a food truck owner and a woman who founded a community support group in the midst of the pandemic.
The casting sends a message: Budweiser is a brand for everyone; for superstars, yes, but more importantly for blue-collar workers and laypeople like you and me. The workingman’s beer schtick has, of course, been one that Bud has leaned into for decades: think of the iconic cowboys cracking open old-fashioned cans of Coors after a hard day of manual labor.
“Throughout Budweiser’s history, the brand has championed the American spirit - the values and ideals that connect all our consumers no matter where they live or what they do,” Kristina Punwani, head of marketing at Budweiser, said in a statement.
“In bringing back our iconic tagline, ‘This Bud’s for you,’ we are also evolving the meaning behind the phrase - from something that used to signify the end of the workday to a mantra that embodies the modern consumer and all their side hustles, passion projects and career successes. We are going to continue this focus on intentional and authentic connections with our audience around topics and passion points that matter most to them like sports and music in 2023 and beyond.”
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Budweiser’s parent company AB InBev recently ended an exclusivity deal with the NFL – which, for more than thirty years, made it the sole beer brand that was able to advertise during the Super Bowl – opening the door for competitors like Molson Coors to step in with ads for the Big Game.
Budweiser wrote in a press release that its “overarching strategy for the coming years [will be] focused on modernizing the brand by connecting with a younger audience through key passion areas, including sports moments like the Super Bowl, and a localized music program that will resonate with consumers on a market-by-market basis.”
The brand’s new Super Bowl ad will air in strategic markets – including New York, Philadelphia and California.
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