If you have been watching any of the bowl games this year, and in particularly twice last night during the national championship game, you have probably seen Budweisers newest commercial. Normally, Budweiser tends to runs ads that are humorous and have never really talked a great deal about the brewing process. The new ad uses one of the commentators (Rob Riggle) from the Daily Show as it's spokesman. In the commercial he states that lighter beers are less forgiving than darker beers, more difficult to make, and are so clean that they have "nothing to hide behind." The commercial also shows actual people with tin buckets full of hops running around a brew room like that is actually how they brew the beer instead of a huge ultra-modern brewing facility.
I am not going to bash AB in this, but several things come to light here for me. It is true that the lager style that is brewed by AB is very difficult to brew. All mistakes are out there for God and everyone to see and taste, but that is because the style has very little flavor. It's also why AB has very successfully convinced Americans that beer needs to be consumed near freezing. This helps hide any off flavors and colder temperatures suppress flavors on your palate.
What bothers me most here is that AB is trying to associate flavor with color. I really get a good laugh out this. Basically they are stating that they have no flavor to hide behind because their product cannot have any flavor because it is so crisp, clean, and light colored. The ad is stating that if you are drinking darker beer, and not their beer, then you must be hiding behind flavor. Also, by this line of thinking that must mean that Russian Imperial Stouts, porters, barleywines, and double IPA's must be easier to brew than their beer. I took it quite far there, but you get the picture.
From a brewing standing AB is correct. They pump out so much consistent beer year after year that is an amazing technical accomplishment. I can understand that AB is feeling a bit threatened by the craft beer movement, but attack ads against craft beer are not going to work.
I couldn't find the ad anywhere , but if I find it I will post it.
Cheers!
Matt
2 comments:
The room where we took the rice picture on HGB is featured in that commercial.
I hate Budweiser as much as the fan of good beer, but I actually kinda like these commercials. It really is a difficult style to produce, especially in such large quantities. At the very least, we should be thankful that it doesn't have Carlos fucking Mencias in it.
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