Bud Light Is Bailing on Funny Super Bowl Commercials for, Um, Sophistication

Hey Bud Light, wassssssuuuuuppp? Heard you’re bailing on the wild and crazy beer ads this Super Bowl season. No more effing swear jars. No more talking frogs. No more office drones launching pencils into the boss’s ass. That’s because you want to let the world know you’re now .. sophisticated? 

It’s a new era for the brand, Bud Light’s VP of Marketing Allisa Heinerscheid (great beer name!) told Variety, vowing to take a scrubber to the beer’s ads and “strip away all the loudness and the distractions.”  Here’s the problem, Bud Light -- loudness and distractions were your brand. 

If you’ve ever sat in for an agency pitch for a beer commercial -- unfortunately, I have -- it sounds exactly like the stein full of business-school suds Heinerscheid (great beer name!) is serving up to Variety.   “Consumers young and old want a brand to stand for something,” she argues, secretly yearning to hear about “a unique benefit.” The “unique benefit” being sold in these ads? It’s easy to drink. That’s right -- Bud Light: You can drink it!

What a dopey mistake. Unlike most other macro beers, Bud Light has an easily identifiable, insanely popular identity -- a sense of humor.  People wait to go to the bathroom because they don’t want to miss the next great comedy spot. How many brands have consumers compiling 10-minute highlight reels of their favorite hilarious commercials? I can only think of one. 

Here’s the problem: Any young consumer who thinks of themselves as “sophisticated” is a) probably more than a tad obnoxious and b) wouldn’t be caught dead holding a Bud Light. And that’s OK!  You don’t want that guy or gal drinking your beer anyway. They’re only going to leave you for the next Belgian, IPA, or Imperial Stout that winks at them from across the bar. 

But your core consumers, the ones sitting on the couch for Chiefs vs. Eagles with chili stains all over the fronts of their bootleg Travis Kelce jerseys? The only thing they want is a pleasant buzz and a few laughs. Forget sophistication and give us horse farts.

Real Men of Genius know their audience.