The musical voice here is Passenger (aka Michael David Rosenberg), who has been featured on this blog in the past.
I have several problems with this ad.
The first is the "puppy adoptions" sign.
That's an expensive and permanent sign, and those dogs are NOT being "adopted" -- they are pure bred dogs being SOLD. Nothing wrong with that, but do not piss on my leg and tell me it's raining.
When you are selling pure breed retrievers (the most common pure breed, so no points for free thinking there Budweiser shill-meister), you are not in the ADOPTION business, but in the cash-and-carry business.
The word "adoption" here is cynical marketing malarkey designed to "dog wash" this ad from the stigma that is now attached to breeding pedigree dogs.
The second problem I have with this ad is that this stupid blonde lady seems to have a lot of trouble keeping her dogs watched and in a pen. This is supposed to be cute. It's not. It's reckless endangerment.
My third problem with this ad is that it is incoherent, both as a story and as a marketing vehicle. What is it saying? What is the product? Are they selling horses? Puppies? White bread romance between model-perfect people in a dream-like setting?
This ad has NOTHING to do with the product it is selling. It's bad story with a forgettable label slapped on at the end. In short, pure crap, stem to stern.
Now Passenger? That's a great voice and a great song. But that's the ONLY redeeming part of this ad.
7 comments:
It's unimportant (to Budweiser) what kind of scene their brand is set in. The main message is that they can afford a super bowl ad, so why don't all you sheeple just go down and get a 12 pack.
I had the same curmudgeonly reaction you had, but the ad is a big, big hit. It reminded me of country music, which used to be truly wonderful but now is strictly paint-by-the-numbers: Insert "God" "Freedom" "Cute Girl/Bad Man" "Truck" and "Drinking" and you've got a hit.
The barn manager would be fired if his Clydesdales were leaping fences and racing on roads...
Treacle, treacle, little ad.
Message here is really bad.
Barbie breeder, so un-clued,
making eyes at craggy dude.
TV people saying "Awwwww!"
Buttons pushed by what they saw.
Big brown horses, puppies cute,
parting suckers from their loot.
I think the point of the ad is the tag line at the end "best buds". For sure I think the whole premise is kind of stupid and it will play well to an audience of apartment dwellers and urban/suburbanites who don't know about dogs, horses, farms, reality. But as long as they stay drunk and watch football, the ad will fly.
Why can't it just be cute and sweet. People watching the Super Bowl are not looking for the deep and hidden message.
The Budweiser ads are image ads, designed to make their audience feel good about using their product, just as Coke/Pepsi, perfume, etc. "sell" to specific groups. They are not selling detergent where they can show "A removes more stains than B". So don't try to read too much into them. If you don't relate to their message then you are not in the "target audience." Anheuser-Busch spends tens of thousands of dollars on research on these commercials to ensure the target audience gets the message. As for production value, each commercial is carefully crafted. I'm sure they are happy you believe the "Warm Springs Puppy Adoptions" sign is a real place. People are not expected to *believe* the situations they create, most of which revolve around anthropomorphizing horses and dogs.
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