The 13 Best '90s Beer Ads We Still Remember Today

Here's the weird thing about commercials: Most of the time, they're annoying. We skip them, and they signal it's time to run to the bathroom or grab a snack from the kitchen. Even if we sit through them, most of us end up distracted by our phones anyway. When commercials are good, though, they're really good — and we say it's impossible to beat some of the ads from the 1990s.

There's always been something magical about 1990s-era television, and the commercials? Some beer ads were so good that they didn't just raise the profile of the brand, but they were established firmly in the pop culture landscape of the decade. Years later, we still love them — and still occasionally find ourselves asking, "Wassssssup?"

Full disclosure: We're going to be talking about one particular brand a lot, and that's because Budweiser isn't just the King of Beers; it's also the King of the Beer Commercial. Budweiser's Super Bowl commercials are known for tugging at your heartstrings, and there's no denying the fact that when they hit upon the idea to use their famous Clydesdales in their beer ads, it was a stroke of genius. It's possible you've forgotten about the other big ad campaigns it ran in the '90s, though, and we're going to remedy that — as well as look at some other beers. Although Budweiser has been leading the way in putting out some truly memorable commercials, it's not the only game in town.

Years before a long-dead Marilyn Monroe was added into a Dior ad, well before Carrie Fisher and Harold Ramis were posthumously added into the Star Wars and Ghostbusters franchises (respectively), and more than 20 years before a CGI Audrey Hepburn showed up in an ad for Galaxy chocolate, John Wayne returned from the other side to defend a group of daydreaming recruits from the wrath of a drill sergeant who's discovered someone's 6-pack of Coors Light ... and is determined to find out who it belongs to.

The drill sergeant is none other than R. Lee Ermey, a real-life former Marine who famously starred as the terrifying Gunnery Sgt. Hartman in "Full Metal Jacket." Even the looming threat of a severe punishment isn't enough to keep the recruits from imagining a world in which they're frolicking in a mountain stream instead of being screamed at, and it's none other than John Wayne who steps up to explain that not only is the beer his, but to reprimand the sergeant and demand his pretzels.

The commercial ends with Ermey's, "Well, don't just stand there, find the General's pretzels!" and a scattering of the troops. Wayne had been dead for 13 years by the time the commercial aired, and for anyone who could still remember the sound of dial-up internet, his appearance was nothing short of mind-blowing.

We'll be honest: It was really, really hard to pick the best of Budweiser's 1990s-era commercials, especially when it comes to the animals. There's just something about the Clydesdales and their canine friends that hits you right in the feels, and in 1999, Bud's Super Bowl commercial added some laughs, too — even more so if you happen to have a few canine companions of your own.

The spot was called "Separated at Birth," and it saw a group of excited firemen picking out the Dalmatian puppy that was going to be their new mascot. It's clearly a big day for the little dog, who perches happily on a shoulder, looks at his rejected, whimpering sibling, and blows a raspberry with the kind of spite that's only reserved for brothers and sisters. Fast forward a few years, and the two meet again: Puppy One is riding proudly on a firetruck, while Puppy Two now has a seat on the famous Budweiser wagon pulled by the iconic Clydesdale. And yes, cue a most righteous revenge raspberry.

It's credited as being the spiritual precursor to Bud's other award-winning, tear-jerking, absolutely beautiful puppy-filled commercials, and it's also regularly cited as a massive favorite. We agree: How can you not?

You can thank us later for this one because we have a brilliant idea for the next night you're looking to kick back with some friends, YouTube, and — preferably — a Bud Light or a few. Head to the internet and find a montage of Bud Light's Real Men of Genius commercials because they're nothing short of epic.

If there's any ad campaign that we'd consider perfect, it's this one. It kicked off in 1998, and over the next 10 years, Bud Light ran hundreds of different ads that saluted people like Mr. Golf Ball Washer Inventor, Mr. Nudist Colony Activity Coordinator, Mr. Really Stinky Breath Breather Outer, Mr. Bathroom Stall Dirty Joke Writer, Mr. Renaissance Fair Performer ... you get the idea. The list is long, and the writing is ridiculously clever. Trust us when we say it'll take a few listens to catch everything, particularly the epic additions that come courtesy of the backup singers.

Fun fact: The guy singing is Dave Bickler, and you'll recognize him as the former lead singer of Survivor and the voice that brought us "Eye of the Tiger." This incredibly successful campaign was rebooted into "Internet Heroes of Genius," and it makes us proud to be the Person That Still Uses Middle School Email.

Billy Dee Williams is, of course, most famous as Lando Calrissian, the ultra-suave, sweet-talking rogue who's so smooth that we all forgive him almost immediately after betraying our beloved heroes. (Spoiler alert) It wasn't too long after that he became the spokesman for Colt 45, with the not-so-great-in-hindsight tagline, "It works every time." Weird in hindsight? Absolutely, and even stranger is that when Colt 45 parent company, Pabst, rebooted the campaign in 2016, the tagline stayed the same.

Williams started his gig in 1986, but his commercials continued into the 1990s. In 1992, he sat down for a spot alongside Fab 5 Freddy, who was dubbed "The coolest person in New York" by The New Yorker. That was kind of an understatement: A '90s-era Renaissance man, he was well-established as a rapper, MTV host, director, writer, artist, and painter both at home touring art galleries in Italy or exchanging artwork for stays on Sunset Boulevard. It's no wonder that the commercial quickly gives a glimpse into a world that most of us could only dream of.

As the two chat about how they like to relax, the "quiet evening" at home dissolves into images of evening gowns, high heels on marble-tiled floors, dancing around a grand piano, and — of course — Colt 45. It was the kind of party that everyone wanted to be invited to in the '90s, and honestly? We wouldn't turn down an invitation today.

For the 2025 Super Bowl, Bud Light's ad made block parties look cool again with the help of stars like Post Malone, Peyton Manning, and Shane Gillis. That's some serious star power, but it hasn't always been that way. Go back to the mid-90s, when you had an entire campaign built around a regular guy named Johnny, who was always professing his love in an attempt to get others — initially, his father — to offer him a Bud Light.

It was such a simple idea, but Johnny's tearful "I love you, man!" was such a hit that he even appeared alongside Charlton Heston. Johnny never got his beer, but Heston hilariously did after correcting Johnny's delivery technique. Surprisingly, it was only the fourth commercial in the campaign that got Heston on board, which gives a pretty good indication of just how big of a deal it was.

In 1996, the Los Angeles Times interviewed the real Johnny, actor Rob Fitzgerald. He explained why he thought it was such a hit, saying, "I don't think I'm threatening, and I think people identify with my weakness, my vulnerability, even though it's a mask. [Johnny's] going to do whatever he's going to do, and they laugh at him because of it." Fitzgerald went on to become something of a celebrity, making late-night television appearances and amassing a decent number of acting credits.

While most of the U.S. beer brands were banking on building a hilarious, clever, and ultimately relatable connection with consumers, Guinness went in the other direction with an arty, abstract ad that's still remembered as one of the most impressive television commercials — of any kind. The idea was based around waiting and reward: Anyone who knows anything about Guinness knows that it takes a while to pour one the right way.

We all also know that it's worth the wait, and that's beautifully depicted in an elegant, black-and-white advert that shows surfers waiting for the perfect waves. White foam turns into breathtakingly beautiful white horses that race along with the surfers while everything crashes in a climactic moment that ends with the voiceover saying, "Here's to waiting." Influences included the 1893 painting Neptune's Horses, and impressively, the horses were very real — and were first filmed and then inserted into the ad with then cutting-edge technology. Meanwhile, the surfers were filmed by other surfers wielding 50-pound cameras. 

The result is a commercial that plays like an art house film, one that feels heavy, substantial, and that you can feel in your heartbeat. Love Guinness or leave it, the commercial remains one of the best.

On the surface, it looks pretty straightforward: During the Super Bowl, there's another matchup for fans to watch. Bud takes on Bud Light in what became known as the Bud Bowl, and by the time the last one aired in 1997, there had been eight games, all nail-biters, and they contained pop culture references and icons throughout. The series established Budweiser as the reigning champion, but even Bud Light fans had to admit that it was an incredibly fun contrast to the football games. 

Interestingly, the campaign was kicked off (see what we did there?) with the goal of establishing Budweiser as one of the biggest advertisers in the Super Bowl. With the format of multiple commercials per game, it absolutely worked — and we might not have Bud as a modern-day commercial heavyweight without it. 

The stop-motion ads were six months in the making, and here's a fun fact: They were made by the same company behind much of the weirdness of Pee Wee's Playhouse. It was worth it, and it's still credited as being one of the most successful ad campaigns in history. In other words, it was a touchdown (sorry, not sorry).

Do we have any idea why the 1995 Budweiser Frogs commercial was such a massive success? Absolutely not, but it's undeniable that the croaking frogs who finally managed to put together "Bud," Weis," and "Er" were such a sensation that there are still Budweiser Frog sweatshirts available on Amazon.

The commercial was developed with the goal of targeting 20-somethings, and after Budweiser put out the call for a new campaign, the Budweiser frogs were plucked from a slew of proposed campaigns. Even when it was pitched to the higher-ups at Budweiser — which included August Busch III and IV — no one knew why it was the right one ... they just knew that it was. Thirty seconds of animatronic frog footage and a Super Bowl time slot set them back $2.3 million (or, adjusted for inflation, that's about $4.8 million in 2023), and they gambled on it simply because it was weird, bizarre, and no one understood it.

Audiences did, though, and it's credited for sending the popularity of Budweiser into the stratosphere with precisely the age group that was being targeted. It was so successful that in addition to an alligator, the campaign also added a pair of disgruntled lizards who believed they could have done the whole thing better. It just goes to show that sometimes, it pays to take risks.

There have been a lot of commercials featuring the Budweiser Clydesdales, and choosing a favorite few ads is tough. We decided to go with the 1996 commercial that really kicked off the horses' fame as stars with personalities as big as their hooves. When two groups of horses faced off against each other in a football game set against some seriously gorgeous mountains, it was a major step toward becoming the icons that they are today.

The horses were shown kicking the ball, rearing, blocking passes, and the vast majority of that footage is absolutely real and not CGI. (The field goal attempt at the end with the front-facing kick was the exception, and that's only because it's highly unnatural.) The rest took a lot of training, a lot of rehearsing, and set the tone for future commercials. 

By the time the commercial debuted, the Clydesdales were already a staple of Budweiser's marketing. The first six horses had been purchased at the end of Prohibition, and they toured the country to celebrate the law's repeal. Fun fact: The combined weight of the horses and the wagon they pull is a whopping 12 tons.

The 1990s were a strange time, filled with food trends like Orbitz (for those who like to chew their drinks) and Sunny D, which no one was ever really sure just how to describe. Themed restaurants were also strangely popular in the 1990s, and that gives us some important context for the pop culture landscape that advertisers were working with here. It also kind of explains how one of the most popular commercials that rounded out the decade involved a group of friends yelling, "Wassup!" to each other over the phone, and if you're wondering whether or not this lives rent-free in the heads of everyone who was there to witness it firsthand, well, you'd better believe that it does.

This commercial just makes it into the "90s, first airing in December of 1999. It was based on short film "True," which had pretty much the exact same premise, which was in turn picked up by an ad agency and pitched as a commercial that would put Budweiser right in the middle of a group of friends who are just honestly and wonderfully happy to talk to each other. 

Weird, sure, but it makes sense that it latched onto audiences in a big way. Who doesn't want to have that kind of friend group? Add in a short, buzzy catchphrase that was just as suited to everyday conversation as it was to a commercial, and it was a winning formula.

The commercial lineup of the 2025 Super Bowl saw iconic mascots like Chester Cheetah and the Kool-Aid Man joining forces to advertise Instacart, and do we wish that Miller Lite's evil beaver had been included? Yes. No? Maybe? Heck, we're not even sure because Miller's 1998 commercial is so bizarre that it still lives in our nightmares. 

It sees a frontier-era family deciding to head out into the woods and build a house, which they do. They're celebrating when the aforementioned evil beaver notices that they've cut down all the trees for their home, so he does what any beaver would do — he jumps on his dirt bike to do some circles around them before gnawing their new home into sawdust. What does this have to do with Miller Lite? After running them off, he kicks back with a beer, because of course he does. It manages to bring the bizarre of the 1990s into a setting that's more 1890s, and we still don't know how we feel about it, aside from the fact that it's hilariously weird.

In the mid-'90s, Budweiser launched an inexplicably adorable campaign that featured not horses or puppies but ants. And it kind of makes sense — ants are tiny, after all, and one bottle of Bud would go a long way in setting up a serious party. That's what is at the heart of the ads, which feature KC and the Sunshine Band's 70s classic "Get Down Tonight."

It's adorable and, honestly, the first thing we think of every time we hear that song. We're not even mad about it, especially considering that a follow-up to the ad showed the ants being very responsible indeed and recycling their Bud bottle. Budweiser had huge plans for the ads, expecting them to get some serious international attention.

Just how far the ants' influence went, it's hard to tell — but they were a major fan favorite. We're also pretty sure that Budweiser might be the only company capable of making these generally annoying little pests adorable, so kudos to that.

We've all been caught mispronouncing words, and if you're the type that needs a cheat sheet to remember how to pronounce some kinds of wine, you're definitely not alone. That's probably one reason that everyone in the '90s loved Bud Light's "Yes, I Am" ads, which started with an ordinary guy mispronouncing the name on a sign being held up by a limo driver, all with the end goal of getting the car's stash of Bud Light. Bud Light knew they were onto something good and continued the idea, sending the erstwhile imposter to a family reunion to pull the same shenanigans. 

After the commercial aired, Bud Light sales didn't just rise; they skyrocketed and put the brand on track to take the lion's share of the marketplace. There's an interesting bit of story to this one, too. The ad writers responsible for the ad founded their own company in the wake of the massive success that it saw, and one of the first and biggest clients they signed just happened to be Miller Brewing Company, which was at the time on the verge of being dethroned by Bud Light in the light beer market.