Post 2 (or, why I'm choosing Bud Light's "Up for Whatever" Super Bowl commercial)

For this post I am choosing the Budweiser "Pacman Up For Anything" advertisement. The ad continues the "Up for Whatever" campaign wherein a supposedly unwitting patron becomes the center of an eventful evening which follows an ever more outrageous sequence of events. This year's Super Bowl commercial follows a similar vein to that of last year's wherein a man, Ian, is offered a Bud Light but only on the condition that he agrees to engage in whatever happens next and is part of a broader campaign which positions Bud Light as the beer for young people that live spontaneous, exciting lives. The implication, and thus the message, being that Bud Light is a beer for those who enjoy taking chances and "living life to the fullest," so to speak.

Previous commercials have featured celebrities who appeal to Bud Light's campaign demographic although this particular ad eschews celebrities for nostalgia. A good chunk of the commercial is the game of life-size Pacman our protagonist unwittingly agrees to. This is a clever move because not only is the production of the commercial from a technical standpoint interesting but the game appeals to a wider audience and represents the younger generation's interests.

The choice to air this continuation during the Super Bowl is a logical one. It is part of our culture to watch sports games with friends and to partake in the consumption of alcohol and the Super Bowl is sort of a last hurrah wherein households hold Super Bowl parties and alcohol is a major factor of these parties. So, what Budweiser is doing is not only positioning its brand as a beer for young people who like to have fun and take risks but also as a beer for sports fans in the hope that when the next sports season starts up, it will be Budweiser's products that fans are drinking.

Budweiser, "Pacman Up For Anything"