Posted: Tuesday, July 03, 2007 4:59 AM by Allison Linn
Categories: Alcohol
Cubicle culture is always rife with humorous potential, and beer maker Anheuser-Busch is the latest company to try to mine it for the type of ad that will, well, get people talking over the cubicles.
The spot begins with a woman explaining to one of her colleagues that they’ve started charging people a quarter each time they swear.
“Who gets the money?” the colleague asks warily
“I don’t know. We’ll use it buy something for the office, like a case of Bud Light or something,” she responds.
You can guess what happens next.
 |
| Budweiser |
Instead of cutting down on swearing, everyone starts trying to find an excuse for an expletive, even chastising those that don’t punctuate a sentence with a payment-inducing phrase.
The ad’s charm is in the funny way that people work swearing into boring workplace conversation, and the juxtaposition of that with the stereotypically drab office environs. Even the final shot, in which everyone celebrates with the Bud Light, has that awkward office party feel that makes you chuckle knowingly.
Bob Lachky, chief creative officer for Anheuser-Busch, said the company has actually had the ad since late 2006, but didn’t know quite what to do with it. The content was deemed too edgy for television, but it didn’t have an obvious home on the Web or elsewhere until the company decided to put it on its bud.tv site a few weeks ago.
Lachky said Web response has been strong, but that doesn’t mean the company is tempted to try for TV after all.
“I just don’t think that Bud Light needs to put something too risky on television,” Lachky said. “I mean, every time we dabble there, right on the edge, we hear about it.”
Watch the ad here.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JI3Y1auTFpU