Budweiser beer’s parent company Anheuser-Busch Inbev SA (NYSE: BUD) has filed a new label design charged with American patriotism for approval from the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, Advertising Age reported. The firm confirmed on Tuesday the limited-edition label change and said, “America” would be replacing “Budweiser” on the front of its cans and bottles from May 23 through election season in November.
Yes, the beer’s name will be America for a few months. Jones Knowles Ritchie in New York is the agency responsible for the design change, which would be part of a summer campaign called “America is in Your Hands,” according to AdAge. Starting June 1, Americans will see a national TV spot featuring the new cans and bottles.
The company wants to take advantage of the marketing opportunities this summer has to offer with events such as the summer Olympics, the US election and Copa America Centenario. Anheuser-Busch InBev U.S. Marketing VP Jorn Socquet told AdAge that the Fourth of July and the Olympics would be particularly charged with the brand’s summer advertising strategy.
“You have this wave of patriotism that is going to go up and down throughout the summertime,” Socquet noted. “And we found with Budweiser such a beautiful angle to play on that sentiment.”
The label of the cans and bottles will have the same script as the one used to write Budweiser. But everything will be rewritten to give the beer an aggressively patriotic image, from the phrase “Indivisible since 1776” replacing the words “trade mark registered” to other American phrases such as “Land of the Free”, “Home of the Brave” and “From the Redwood Forest to the Gulf Stream waters this land was made for you and me.” The latest words will be all written in capital letters.
Budweiser Vice President Ricardo Marques said in a statement that the company was proud to honor a nation where the beer has been brewed for the past 140 years, according to a report by the BBC.
A huge business requires big investments
Anheuser-Busch InBev is a Belgian-Brazilian company which controls about 25 percent of the global beer market, being North America the source of its biggest gains. The firm said last year in its financial report that it was planning to increase its investments in marketing programs to boost sales of its brands, including Budweiser.
AB-InBev hopes this new labelling will attract more American consumers, especially because beer sales tend to spike at the end of May and the beginning of September.
Source: Advertising Age