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Nobody does Super Bowl ads better than Anheuser-Busch, and you don’t have to drink beer to love them. This year, the company unveiled the commercial two weeks ahead of the big game, and it’s already a hit.
The beer content in the ad is negligible. The “We love America” vibes are enormous.
Anheuser-Busch had previously released two trailers for the ad. (That’s remarkable in itself, that we now get trailers for ads.) The first simply introduced us to a Clydesdale foal with impossibly long legs and the distinctive white blaze on his face.
The second featured a collection of older horses looking with interest at a moving bucket in their barn.
Spoiler alert: Stop reading now if you prefer to wait for the Super Bowl to learn what’s under the bucket.
But with the advance release, Budweiser gave us permission to watch now. And what we see in the full ad is a budding relationship between a baby horse and a baby eagle.
And toward the end of the ad, in an instantly iconic shot, a full-grown eagle spreads its wings behind the horse, making it look like the horse itself has sprouted wings like Pegasus.
“You crying?” says one farmer to another, as they look on.
“Sun’s in my eyes,” the other farmer says.
And with that, Anheuser-Busch offers an exhilarating pro-America ad with nary a flag waving.
It is a fist-pumping triumph for the brand, which has been working to recover from the fallout of partnering with transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on a Bud Light promotion in 2023. Some reports suggest that the brand has never recovered from that promotion, although alcohol sales are down across the board, in part because fewer young people are drinking.
Forbes recently asked, “Is the world going sober?” noting that Jim Beam is pausing production at its flagship Kentucky distillery amid reports of gluts across the industry. And there was widespread objection to the federal government’s new dietary guidelines not taking a harder stance on alcohol, given the established health risks.
Alcohol, in other words, is not ascendant in our culture, but eagles are. (Side note: America’s most famous bald eagles, Jackie and Shadow, are back in their nest at Big Bear Valley and can help us get through the rest of winter once the Super Bowl is over.)
The Budweiser ad is called “American Icons” and it was produced by filmmaker and director Henry-Alex Rubin, reportedly without artificial intelligence. Anheuser-Busch has said the eagle was a bird under the care of the American Eagle Foundation, and the incredible wingspan shown in the seminal shot was not enhanced: a bald eagle’s wingspan can exceed 7 feet.
“American Icons” may not compel anyone watching the Super Bowl to buy beer, but we are a country in sore need of inspiration, and the ad proves once again the power that our national symbol has.
There’s a lot to like about this “We love America” vibe.
More changes at CBS
As Bari Weiss and Tony Dokoupil remain under a microscope at the new CBS, the network has announced that Weiss is bringing on 19 new contributors, including Arthur C. Brooks, Niall Ferguson, Coleman Hughes and H.R. McMaster.
CBS also signed three popular influencers in the health and longevity space: Andrew Huberman, Dr. Peter Attia and Dr. Mark Hyman. They and the others will appear “across all of the network’s broadcasts and digital platforms,” effective immediately, the network said.
The Washington Post obtained a recording of an all-staff meeting Tuesday where the new contributors were announced. In a quote that immediately went viral, she told the staff, “Our strategy until now has been clinging to the audience that remains on broadcast television, and I’m here to tell you that if we stick to that strategy, we are toast.”
She also defined the network’s political stance: “We’re for the center. We’re for the center-right, and we’re for the center-left,” according to the Post.
Fund these police
Winter Storm Fern left tens of thousands of people without power and turned radio host and OutKick founder Clay Travis into a de-facto weather forecaster.
The storm also turned the Louisville, Kentucky, Police Department into the unlikeliest of social-media stars, as the department’s X feed turned cheeky and began making posts that many people found hilarious and others found inappropriate. HR may or may not have gotten involved — it’s unclear whether the social-media team was actually taken to task for their posts, or if that was part of the gag.
At any rate, the account sparked a conversation about whether a police department should be making jokes while a weather emergency was in progress, and got the Louisville Metro Police Department into People magazine and on the CBS Evening News.
At one point, the account fielded a poll asking whether the account should be “balanced” or remain “unhinged.” So far, the vote is 97% for unhinged.
As an enthusiastic supporter of first responders, I’m all for anything that brings these men and women applause and recognition for the stressful work that they do.
Recommended Reading
As president of Asbury University, Kevin Brown had a front-row view of a groundswell of religious renewal in 2023 at what became known as the “Asbury Awakening.” Brown agrees that data from the pews doesn’t support anecdotes of revival, but says there are other factors we should be watching.
“We don’t need a statistical majority of Americans to identify as Christian to celebrate spiritual renewal in the country. The vitality of Christianity has never depended on volume so much as on the presence of robust communities capable of sustaining belief, practice and Christ-like virtues over time.”
What statistics about religion tell us — and what they don’t
Naomi Schaefer Riley has read Belle Burden’s divorce memoir “Strangers,” currently No. 1 on The New York Times’ nonfiction bestseller list, and has some thoughts about how society should respond when a parent abandons a family.
Belle Burden and the social cost of divorce
Young women have long talked about whether “having it all” is possible. But the worrisome trend among young men is “having none of it,” Stephen Cranney writes.
“This disconnect isn’t just a personal failure of ambition; it’s a structural one. As Richard Reeves, president of the American Institute for Boys and Men, recently noted, the traditional pathway toward adult meaning is getting lost as core institutions such as religion, family and societal responsibilities have eroded. When these traditional ‘on-ramps’ to adulthood disappear, many men simply stall out.”
Checked-out men are missing life’s greatest joys
End Notes
Great as “American Icons” is, it still doesn’t top the best Budweiser Super Bowl ad ever, “Born a Donkey.”