Budweiser's Super Bowl Ad 2017
Yes, the Clydesdales are there, too
Five days before the game, Super Bowl ads from this year's show are starting to appear online. Yesterday, Budweiser released a moving 60-second spot that highlights the immigrant story of cofounder Adolphus Busch, who emigrated from Germany to Saint Louis in 1857. The ad follows him on the ship crossing to America and through a difficult journey met by people who yell, "You're not wanted here. Go back home," all in pursuit of making his beer.
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The sentiment is particularly poignant less than a week after President Trump announced that he would ban immigration from seven Muslim countries. Anheuser-Busch, however, explains that the ad was in the works before the president's executive order. "This commercial shows the start of Budweiser's journey, and while it is set in the 1800s, it's a story we believe will resonate with today's entrepreneurial generation—those who continue to strive for their dreams," Ricardo Marques, the vice president of the company, says in a press release.
The ad is a marked change from Budweiser's classic Clydesdale advertisements (the horses do make a very brief appearance here though) and has already sparked debate, with some on Twitter calling for a boycott of the beer and others applauding the ad.