By Malay Desai
From: USA, created by Mcgarrybowen, Chicago
Two young men walking into a party are introduced by their host to ‘Weego’, his new rescue dog. The pet, on being told ‘Here Weego’, runs inside, opens the refrigerator and fetches a beer bottle. It is a rage at the party where more guests are fetched more beer by the dog, who often acts at an inadvertent mention of ‘here we go’. ‘It’s a sure sign of a Bud Light’, the voice over says at the end, as the dog pushes a carton which carries Budweiser’s Facebook page link.
Why we Like
The Super Bowl is to advertising what the Paris Fashion Week is to fashion, a chance to showcase the best and most expensive works for the world to lap up. We’re sure you know much about it but just to reinforce the relevance of America’s biggest sporting event to the ad world, know this: this year’s final was watched by more than 11 crore viewers, the 30-second spots in its break worth anything upwards from Rs 25 lakh each and like every year, Super Bowl 2012 saw dozens of sites and publications featuring pre-launch TVCs and arguing/ rating them after their release.
Picking one for our space on this page, therefore, wasn’t the easiest job, until we discovered the story behind this Bud Light spot. This TVC, unlike the typical Super Bowl 30-seconder, does not flaunt extravagant production nor does it feature an array of celebrities, but rather an awkward-looking pup. Why then, has it made the cut with us (and for some of those ‘ratings’ as well, where it has hit the top)? Surely it’s not as funny as last year’s ‘Darth Vader’ by VolksWagen?
The formula is simple - pets doing funny things seldom fail to sell stuff. But the star here is a rescue dog (rescued from possible euthanasia after being found as a stray). And the news, which anyone who visits the Bud Light Facebook page (after spotting the link on this TVC) would find out is that Budweiser is donating a dollar for every ‘Like’ the page gets to an animal rescue foundation. Furthermore, the welcome tab on the page also warms you up to the fact that Weego in the ad is an actual rescue dog.
And besides, if the conventional ‘client’ in you is currently thinking ‘Yeah fine, but what about the beer branding?’ or ‘Where’s my profit in this?’, the TVC features prominent Bud Light visuals more than once and here’s the tipping point - the brand’s tag line is ‘Here We Go’. Makes perfect sense?
We are already dreaming if such a delicious annual platform for advertising is possible to create at home or closer to home. We surely have the big sporting events and the viewership numbers, hell yes. IPL final half-time? No wait, we gotta fix the IPL first.
