Dive Brief:
- The Budweiser Clydesdales team is not being retired and will appear in ads in the Super Bowl, AB InBev said yesterday.
- The brewer, seeking to appease the concerns of fans of the iconic horse team, released one of its SuperBowl ads early. The ad, made in conjunction with ride-service Lyft, show people getting a surprise ride with the horses.
- A report yesterday by the Wall Street Journal suggesting that Budweiser planned to dump the horses led to a frenzy in the media.
Dive Insight:
The truth is a little hard to parse in the Clydesdale scandal. The horses will appear in a "drink responsibly" ad that will run during the Super Bowl. But the beer's holiday season advertising campaign will apparently not feature the horses. Those ads will instead feature old-fashioned-looking crates of beer, Jay Z, and zombies.
The reasoning behind that may be a little hard to parse too. Young people don't necessarily drink Bud. Young people don't necessarily like things that seem like they are for older people, like Bud. But young people would more likely enjoy things that seem like they are for old people from a very long time ago, like Bud in a wooden box. And young people are more likely to enjoy Jay Z and zombies.