Budweiser Takes Flight With 150th Birthday Classic

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Back in the 2010s, Budweiser was the king of the Super Bowl. For three years in a row they topped System1’s ad effectiveness charts with a sequence of 5-Star commercials involving their Clydesdale horse mascots and an adorable puppy one of the horses made friends with. Those ads, set to heartfelt country-rock songs, set the standard for storytelling Game Night ads. Bud moved away from the approach as the decade continued.

But now Bud’s animal storytelling is back, with a patriotic twist, and it’s as effective as ever.

Budweiser and BBDO’s Super Bowl LX ad—one of the first full commercials to drop for this year’s game—is a celebration of both Bud’s 150th birthday and America’s 250th. “American Icons” takes the idea of animal friendship and puts an all-American spin on it, as a Clydesdale foal finds a baby bald eagle chick in a fallen nest.

The horse nurses his feathered friend as it grows, letting it ride on his back until the bird is ready to spread its wings in a spectacular shot. Two farmers look on in awe, and one of them seems to have something in his eye… and so will plenty of the audience, judging by the response on Test Your Ad. Oh, and just to seal the emotional deal, Budweiser has licensed classic rock staple “Freebird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd to play as the eagle takes flight.

It’s hardly subtle. But this is the Super Bowl, and with over 100 million people, you don’t want subtle. You want something direct, that feels good, and cuts through everything else happening on the night. With “American Icons,” Budweiser delivers, with visuals that will catch attention above a crowded party and a set of cultural references that truly is iconic.

It’s a package that lands it a huge 5.6-Star Rating on Test Your Ad Pro, immediately setting a hard target for other Game Night advertisers to match. It’s a score that fewer than 1 in 200 American beer ads can equal, one which predicts exceptional effectiveness at generating share and business impact over the long term.

What’s driving this sky-high Star Rating? Looking at the comments from viewers in our Test Your Ad Pro panel, it’s the animals’ relationship that resonates, with people praising the ad for the way it shows the horse and eagle becoming firm friends. Looking at the Types Of Happiness chart, it shows “Uplifted” and “Awe-Inspired” as the positive emotions the ad leaves behind—both highly effective feelings to elicit.

The only downside of the ad is a modest Brand Fluency score—while people on Super Bowl night will love the ad, they may not come away realizing it’s for Budweiser. There’s plenty of opportunity for the brand to correct that, though, with shorter versions or online and static advertising which affirms the link between the highly effective imagery and the brand.

So Budweiser opens up the Super Bowl LX scoring with an early touchdown. On Game Night we’ll be watching and testing every single national Super Bowl ad, so Budweiser will have to wait until then to see if they can call themselves the best ad of the night (and you can find out too by signing up for our Super Bowl coverage). With a 5.6-Star score, though, it’ll take a lot to beat this soaring, patriotic ad.