Super Bowl and Budweiser

The Super Bowl is the most watched TV program of the year in the U.S. On average, about 40% of all US households tune into it every year. This makes the show a perfect stage for advertising to many different target audiences. Ever since the huge success of the Apple commercial introducing the Mac in 1984, the Super Bowl has become the premier platform for extravagant and also very expensive commercials. Companies pay tremendous sums only to have their commercials shown at this special event. A record was set in 2008 when a company paid the unbelievable amount of $ 2.7 million for a 30 second spot during the Super Bowl XLII. One of the most established brands that participate in the commercial craziness of the Super Bowl almost every year is Budweiser. 2008s Super Bowl was featuring several Budweiser commercials that were all different from each other although some of them had the same approach: they were targeting young people, preferably males who are used to ‘usual’ commercials and whose humour appeal can only be reached by a commercial that is different and really surprising. For this reason, Budweiser came up with the following campaign. In the commercials, they present really crazy and unbelievable things that they claim people are able to do when they drink Bud Light. However, those things always go wrong, for example one guy thinks that Bud Light is going to make him fly and he actually starts flying with a beer bottle in his hands, however, unfortunately he is sucked in by a blast pipe of a plane and gets roasted. When he is back on the ground another guy asks him: “Rough flight?” This advertising clearly targets young men between 20 and 30 who are interested in challenges and who become curious when they see somebody doing something crazy like being able to fly. The funny climax of this commercial is also exactly tailored to this target group. Another Bud Light example of the company’s attempt to attract the biggest part of the Super Bowl’s audience is the commercial where a few couples are having a house party and the guys are supposed to bring some cheese and wine. Instead, they bring dummies made out of cardboard, though, in order to trick their wives. The dummies contain something that the guys prefer over any other food or drinks – Bud Light. Budweiser obviously tries to reach the biggest part of target audiences in the Super Bowl with their ads. However, in the Super Bowl 2008 there was also one ad that was tailored to a different, smaller target audience: women. The commercial shows the story of a horse who did not get picked for a parade. It meets a dog, though, that starts coaching the horse and helping him to improve until the end of the story when, after one year, the horse finally gets picked for the parade. Budweiser really cleverly picked kind out a random but still moving story in order to reach this different target audience of women. This target audience is definitely older, also because the commercial is for the more ‘grown-up’ brand Budweiser, and it is presented like part of a heart-warming movie. If so many people all over the country watch the Super Bowl every year, these ads must be cleverly picked and the cost for them must be well worth it, because companies are able to reach several different big target audiences by airing them at this special time. (Link to the commercials: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6Ce-SJreIA )