Budweiser announced today that it is launching its Super Bowl LV campaign, but that campaign won’t be seen during the football game. The company says that for the first time in 37 years, it won’t run its in-game Super Bowl airtime and instead will reallocate the media investment to help support recovery in the on-premise through COVID-19 vaccine awareness and education throughout the year. Budweiser says it will be running its ad digitally in the week leading up to and during the game.
The digital ad entitled “Bigger Picture,” aims to celebrate the individual acts of resilience that sparked hope during the last year and spotlights a group of first responders who were among the first people to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. “Bigger Picture” is narrated by actress, advocate and director Rashida Jones.
“I’m proud to lend my voice to the ‘Bigger Picture’ film,” says Jones. “Budweiser shares my commitment to advocating for COVID-19 prevention and vaccine awareness and education. I’m happy to be a part of Budweiser’s celebration of our resilience and hope during these challenging times.”
The film launches phase one of Budweiser’s commitment to supporting awareness and education related to the COVID-19 vaccine through the donation of advertising airtime in 2021 to the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative’s COVID-19 Vaccine Education Initiative: one of the largest public health communications campaigns in history.
“Like everyone else, we are eager to get people back together, reopen restaurants and bars, and be able to gather to cheers with friends and family,” says Monica Rustgi, VP of marketing at Budweiser. “To do this, and to bring consumers back into neighborhood bars and restaurants that were hit exceptionally hard by the pandemic, we’re stepping in to support critical awareness of the COVID-19 vaccine. That’s why Budweiser has joined together with long-time partner the Ad Council, along with COVID Collaborative, to donate airtime to increase awareness and education surrounding the vaccine.”
The Associated Press reports that other Anheuser-Busch brands, including Bud Light, Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade, Michelob Ultra and Michelob Ultra Organic Seltzer, will still have four minutes of advertising. The announcement by Budweiser follows the announcement that PepsiCo will not advertise Pepsi (but will advertise Mountain Dew and Frito-Lay), and announcements by Coke, Audi and Avocados from Mexico that they will not advertise.