Kicking Off This Year’s Super Bowl Advertising with Budweiser

Budweiser is betting on hope in this Super Bowl moment …

Source: YouTube

We are one week out from the Super Bowl, which means you'll find me sitting on the couch watching the advertising. It's become my tradition … marking the game not by the plays on the field, but by the stories brands choose to tell in these 30 and 60-second moments.

I call it the “marketer’s holiday” because it’s like Christmas for those of us who love brands.

I’m kicking off my coverage with Budweiser, who is kicking off the conversation with "American Icons."

Here’s how their story goes …

A Clydesdale horse (an icon) finds a newborn eagle (an icon), abandoned and vulnerable. The horse doesn't walk away. Instead, it stays. It nurtures and protects. It lifts the eagle through its infancy until the eagle is strong enough to take flight and become who it was meant to be.

Does it potentially get some eye rolls? Probably. But that’s why it's bold because it’s so utterly symbolic. It smacks you in the face.

It's Budweiser betting the game on hope.

Here's my take on this brand’s story: in a moment when the U.S. is fractured, when divisiveness feels like the only language we speak, Budweiser is making a decision to show us what lifting each other up should look like. Not in words but with American icons in action. The Clydesdale doesn't debate with the eagle. Doesn't question it. Doesn't demand anything in return. It simply connects and supports.

That's what we need to do right now.

America needs some nurturing right now, just like that baby eagle. America needs some hope, and we need to show up with some hope right now, for each other.

We need to bet on hope and bet on making it through. Bet on supporting each other when we're at our most vulnerable. Bet on believing that the people around us, even the ones we don't know and even the ones we disagree with, deserve our protection and our care.

That's American and that's what we're supposed to be.

Thank you, Budweiser, for betting on that right now.

So stay tuned as I'll be sharing my favorite spots from the big game. I hope you'll join me.

What's your experience?

P.S. - Here’s one of my favorite Super Bowl spots of all time from Budweiser from about ten years ago. Can never go wrong with a puppy!