SALON

Wednesday, Sep 9, 2009 9:26 PM UTC

Getting it in the can

Bud's provocative new online campaign takes, ahem, a backdoor approach

By

Topics: Advertising, Broadsheet, Beer, Viral Video,

The bathing suit-clad babe lounges poolside on her stomach, perhaps because sitting isn’t an option today, and makes a sultry confession. “I got it in the can for the first time last night. I loved it.”

Since nobody turned on “The Howard Stern Show” this morning, her candor can mean only one thing. Beer commercial!

The Bud Light Lime ad, the brainchild of DDB, goes on to depict a variety of male and female pitchers and receivers, including a bartender who’s “been giving it to everyone in the can all week” and a blowsy young blonde who’s “lost track how many times I’ve had it in the can.”

Combine the ad’s risqué message with a visual on Anheuser Busch’s Web site that not so subtly calls to mind getting it in the pop top, one understands why Bud chose to brand this particular product as “the good time lime.” Limes: truly the sluttiest members of the citrus family.

Welcome to the brave new world of branding, where advertisers don’t need no stinkin’ editorial controls to plumb the depths of their own tastelessness. Envelopes are still harder to push in magazines and television, hence Bud Lime’s alternate ads featuring healthy young people dancing, playing volleyball and grabbing their surfboards to the hipster strains of Santogold.

But traditional outlets aren’t enough these days, and advertisers are increasingly wooing consumers with their, ahem, backdoor strategies. Bud’s CEO Dave Peacock said last month, “What drives pop culture doesn’t necessarily emanate from television anymore, it comes from digital.” The brewer has been an innovator in that realm, offering a bleep-heavy “Swear Jar” spot and a much-forwarded, blush-inducing bit featuring the escalating humiliation of a regular Joe purchasing a six-pack and some porn. The ads aren’t remarkable for much besides their shock value, but there is something weirdly liberating about the Bud ads nevertheless, their grown-up acknowledgment that men and women alike curse, consume porn, use safewords, play with sex toys, and occasionally take trips where the sun doesn’t shine. Personally, I’d pick sodomy over a flavored light beer any day, but it’s nice to have options.

But does an ad’s buzz translate into anybody actually getting buzzed? As AdAge pointed out recently, thanks to the recession and fickle, younger consumers, Bud Light is this year facing its first ever sales decline. Attracting attention is easy — just make a few entendres that barely qualify as double and wait for the knowing gasps. Selling suds in a weak economy? Turns out it’s a real pain in the ass.

Mary Elizabeth Williams

Mary Elizabeth Williams is a staff writer for Salon and the author of "Gimme Shelter: My Three Years Searching for the American Dream." Follow her on Twitter: @embeedub. More Mary Elizabeth Williams.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 35 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

vote
From global warming to fluoride: Why do people deny science? An interesting question.
49 points50 points | 61 comments
vote
Developers evict historic women’s shelter to build luxury hotel - The 104-yr-old Anna Louise Inn has ended its 2-year legal battle with a Fortune 500 company & will now move. Many view the victory of the insurance company over a community touchstone as a major blow to the city.
33 points34 points | 2 comments
vote
Anonymous rallies behind Kaitlyn Hunt
29 points30 points | 35 comments
vote
The GOP Is the 'Party of Crybabies' for Demanding No One Criticize Their Policies or Donors
22 points23 points | comment
vote
Illinois' fracking and coal rush is a national crisis: Illinois and its Mississippi River banks are becoming another ground zero in the war over climate change.
20 points21 points | comment

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: Chekhov's story mirrors Russia's own

Recommendations