Dive Brief:
- Anheuser-Busch InBev will use the Super Bowl to unveil a campaign aimed at repositioning Bud Light as a beer for millennials.
- Gone is Bud Light's four-year old "Here We Go" tagline. Here instead is "The perfect beer for whatever happens" and a series of aspirational and funny ads aimed at young adults.
- The Budweiser brand will also run ads during the game. Those spots are aimed at an older demographic and feature Clydesdale horses and members of the U.S. military.
Dive Insight:
Everyone wants to sell stuff to Gen Y. We get that. But what we also get is that no one on Madison Avenue seems to get Gen Y. The generation that endured a barrage of marketing messages aimed at them during childhood has developed some previously unseen level of immunity to advertising. So we have our doubts that Gen Y will decide that Bud Light is hip (although everyone is likely to think the re-sealable aluminum bottle is cool).
We're equally weirded out by the Budweiser ads. Bud is apparently planning to run one of those offensive ads where a brand tries to link itself to the sacrifices of American military personnel. That ad, dubbed "Hero's Welcome," is supposed to celebrate the return of troops back home. We hate such ads and their blatant attempts to manipulate our emotions. We were soldiers once, and young. We remember coming home. And few things offend us as much as a marketer who ponders such sacred moments and thinks "we can use this to sell something."
But perhaps we're unusual. No doubt a million older people will wipe a tear from their eyes on Super Sunday when they watch a commercial about Gen Y troops returning home, and no doubt those old-timers will get warm fuzzy feelings about their country, their beer and themselves.