Budweiser's great PSA commercial about not drinking and driving.

[iandhr]

[CaliforniaPeggy]

1. I hear their beer is awful...

But they sure know how to make a great commercial.

*sniff* Got something in my eye...

K&R

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. It's terrible. Tastes like goat pee

or at least what you might imagine goat pee to taste like. They have a great ad agency, though.

[Hoppy]

8. A most amazing experience... in a London pub. Excellent choices and the blokes were ordering Bud.

[RoccoR5955]

12. And you personally know what goat pee tastes like?

Not that I like Bud, because I do not, but I brew my own beer, or buy beer from brewers who I know.

The amazing thing about Bud, is that the style, American Light Lager, by definition, is tasteless, and Bud is. This is very hard to accomplish, because any variance from proper brewing technique will add some taste to it that should not be there. What is even more amazing is that they can do it in what, fourteen breweries around the world.

Yes, I would rather have a beer from Omegang, Magic Hat, Brooklyn Brewery, or any of the local breweries here in the Hudson Valley, but I have to admit that no matter where you get a Bud, it will still be the same. Tasteless.

[Veilex]

15. "*sniff* Got something in my eye" - yeah.... me too

[Fred Sanders]

3. I bet crack dealers could afford the best ad agencies also, like "Do crack, and die".

That was a freebie.

What next, do not smoke and walk in the forest by tobacco pushers?

[matt819]

4. Stop the beer reviews

That was a very powerful ad and regardless of how you like their beer or the fact that this ad is from the beer maker, it strikes a chord.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

5. It was, indeed. How can you resist an ad with a sad dog?

Last edited Sat Sep 20, 2014, 07:53 PM - Edit history (1)

[1dogleft]

10. you got that right

hat was a Home Run all the way

[marew]

16. As someone with three absolutely amazing rescue dogs-

I think of them a lot. They trust me implicitly. They deserve only the very best of me. I try to live up to that. As the quote says: "One day I hope to be the person my dog thinks I am!"

[brewens]

6. It's really just a legal disclaimer. They know they make their money off of alcohol junkies

that get drunk several times a week. They know many of those people continue to drive as well. It's way better than it was when I was in the beer business though. I'd say it more the threat of getting popped, thousands in fines and for some people, losing your job that has made the difference.

[MrModerate]

9. Actually, they make their money . . .

On the vast numbers of people who can drink responsibly. It's ultimately a numbers game.

Alco-junkies who kill themselves (and others) on the roads are not a viable customer base.

This ad is not Budweiser being all soft and cuddly, but instead doing what they can to sustain their business model. They'll sell more beer to that 20-something guy if he lives to be a 60-something guy rather than wrapping himself around a guardrail at 25.

Both education and enforcement matter. With education (and attendant cultural change) being the more powerful, IMO.

[brewens]

11. I think the numbers on that kind of beer show 20% of the beer drinkers drink

something like 80% of the beer. I was in the business for 15 years. It's way better than it used to be, but back then, had everyone started drinking responsibly all at once, I would have been out of a job in a couple months. We made our money off the people that got drunk almost every day. Those are about the stats the brewery reps used to quote us. I have no clue where to go to back that up though.

You get a guy that stops off for beers every single day after work, drinks a case and a half at home every week, then also gets hammered at the bars on the weekend. Add all those guys up and they bury your responsible social drinkers in volume!

I'd like to see DUI stats on what people were drinking when popped. I'd say craft beers, good wine and expensive liquor would be pretty minimal. Massed produced beer and the other cheaper stuff would most likely overwhelming numbers wise.

When I was still at the Bud distributor, they had just came out with all those higher alcohol ice beers. We hated that! Want to taste a bad beer? Try Natual Ice if they still even make it. There was no possible reason for that product to exist other than to appeal to people that wanted to get drunk cheaper. The way we looked at it, we were doing just fine with the normal alcohol content stuff, around 5%. Sell a guy a half-rack of the 8% crap and he'd get hammered, where he either would have had to been happy getting a little less drunk, or had to buy a whole case. We also thought it was bad PR. AB was saying, "Know when to say when" on one hand, and coming it with that stuff at the same time.

[RoccoR5955]

13. People who drink craft beers

generally don't do it to get drunk, at least the ones I know.
We drink it for flavor, and Bud, and beers like it have little or none.

Besides, I can drink one or two bottles of a good Belgian Golden, Belgian Tripel, or another high alcohol beer and get drunk on less than I would have to drink of the "mainstream" beers.

[brewens]

14. We also hated the microw-brews at the time, now called craft beers. Typical corporate/company guy

attitude. We sold "The King of Beers" afterall. AB bought out Redhook Brewery and we were "stuck" with that stuff. I have no clue on how good or bad it was. We really didn't give it a chance. You couldn't have had a worse bunch pushing that product at the time.

Soon after that, near the end of my career there, I went to see The Stones in Seattle in '94 I think. AB was promting the tour and I got good seats through the distributor and passes to the "Voodoo lounge VIP Party". My buddies in that area that I hooked up with tickets, were micro-brew guys. One place we went to party had a beer I think was Coos Bay Amber Ale. I really liked that and a few others we drank. That totally changed my attitude toward different beers.

The "Voodoo Lounge" turned out to just be a bash in the King Dome Pavillion right next to the Dome. It was great to get to drink right there and have our own little roped off entrance to go into to our seats. "The Spin Doctors" warmed up. None of us were too interested in them, nor most of the people at the VIP party. I went in and watched them for a few songs, went back and drank some more and snuck out to burn a bowl or two.

good show though. I was glad to finally get to see The Stones. I think their next tour a couple years later was good too. After that, I don't think Mick really could do it anymore. Can't blame him at his freakin' age.

[CTyankee]

7. damn, that nearly killed me...all I could think about was that poor doggie, waiting...

I shudda known that would rip my heart out...geez...