Budweiser Releases Pro-Immigration Super Bowl LI Ad

In a departure from their usual horses and puppies Super Bowl ads, Budweiser honors the company’s founders in a spot that’s relevant to today’s politics.

You don’t have to be a sports fan to know that there’s more to the Super Bowl than just football. There’s the half-time show, the Puppy Bowl and the Kitten Bowl, and there are the ads. Billions of dollars are spent on buying advertising time during the Super Bowl every year. And there are a handful of companies that consistently bring their “A” game every season. Budweiser is one of those companies.

Budweiser isn’t just the King of Beers, it’s also the King of Super Bowl ads. For many years, Budweiser ads have featured their signature Clydesdale horses. Lately, they’ve added golden retrievers into the mix. Then there was that time when they had a “naked” lamb streaking during a horse-on-horse football game. This year, they’re doing something a little different.

This year, they’re doing something a little different:

The 60-second video looks more like a movie trailer than a beer commercial. A young man, after being told “You don’t look like you’re from around here,” flashes back to his treacherous journey on a ship sailing across the Atlantic Ocean, following his dream of brewing beer. As he reaches the American shore and his papers are stamped, shouts of “Go back home!” and “You’re not welcome here!” are hurled at him as he’s shoved and bumped down the street.

His journey takes him halfway across the country to where the reception is much warmer. “Welcome to St. Louis, son,” a passerby says to him. In spite of the dangers he faced along the way, the young man managed to hold onto a notebook in which he’s sketched his ideas. As his flashback ends, the stranger in the bar offers to buy the young man a beer. “Thank you,” he says, “but next time, this is the beer we drink” and he points to a sketch of a bottle labeled Budweiser. The men shake hands and introduce themselves to one another — Adolphus Busch and Eberhard Anheuser.

Thanks to a bit of coincidence, Budweiser unintentionally ended up making somewhat of a political statement. They released the ad just days after Trump signed an executive order banning travel from select countries that are considered predominantly Muslim and where Trump does not have any business interests. The timing of the release was not planned and Ricardo Marques, VP of Marketing, acknowledged that the subject matter is “super relevant” but it’s really just a story about Budweiser’s heritage.

"“There’s really no correlation with anything else that’s happening in the country. We believe this is a universal story that is very relevant today because probably more than any other period in history today the world pulls you in different directions, and it’s never been harder to stick to your guns.”"

Although Budweiser may not have intended to take a stance on immigration, the ad certainly serves as a perfect example of just how much immigrants have helped build American culture. (Speaking of which, William “Pudge” Heffelfinger, widely considered to be the first professional football player, was a descendant of immigrants from Switzerland.)

Next: James Corden On Donald Trump’s Immigration Ban This Week

The ad will air during Super Bowl LI on Feb. 5. Make sure you visit us for all of our Super Bowl-related coverage at Culturess and across the FanSided network. If you’re more into whiskers and paws than Falcons and Patriots, we’ll be discussing the Puppy and Kitten Bowls too. See you Sunday!