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Anheuser-Busch Inbev

Budweiser's Clydesdales get the holiday heave-ho

Matthew Diebel
USA TODAY
Budweiser's famed Clydesdales make a commercial in Boston this fall.

Budweiser's iconic Clydesdales are being put out to pasture in its main advertising — at least temporarily — to be replaced by twentysomething hipsters.

The country's No. 3 beer brand says the horses will not be trotted out to appear in its main holiday advertising campaign this year.

In its main advertising this holiday season, the company will air ads with a hipper vibe, such as commercials that have been running in the pre-Thanksgiving period for its "Holiday Crates," an 18-pack of Budweiser bottles, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal.

A similar campaign will run in the lead-up to Christmas, when the company will air ads featuring people in their 20s looking into the camera and calling out friends' names as a narrator asks "If you could grab a Bud with any of your friends these holidays, who would it be?"

As for the Clydesdales, fans shouldn't worry that they are heading to the glue factory. According to a company statement, their next assignment will be an appearance in the brand's Super Bowl ads and they also will be part of holiday ads urging responsible drinking.

In the wake of the Madison Avenue maneuver, the company issued a playfully worded statement Tuesday.

"Straight from the horse's mouth: The Budweiser Clydesdales are here to stay and will continue to play a central role in our campaigns, including holidays and Super Bowl," company Vice President Brian Perkins says.

The change comes as Budweiser's share of the U.S. beer market has declined since hitting its peak in 1988. According to Beer Marketer's Insights, an industry newsletter, Budweiser, which is owned by Belgium-based brewing behemoth AB InBev, had 7.6% of the market in 2013, down from 14.4% a decade ago.

The erosion has been the result of the growing popularity of light and craft beers, Eric Shepard, executive editor of Beer Marketer's Insights, told the Associated Press. "You look around, and we have this huge group of young drinkers, almost half of them have never tried the brand," Shepard said. Budweiser's spin-off brand, Bud Light, is the No. 1 seller in the USA.

The Clydesdales have been associated with Budweiser since 1933, when the brand's parent company, Anheuser-Busch, introduced them to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition. They have been stars of the brand's holiday advertising since the '80s, pulling a red Budweiser carriage through the snow accompanied by the sounds of jingling bells and jolly music.

The company says it is sticking with the iconic equines as a brand symbol. "Clydesdales play a strong role for the brand, representing Budweiser quality and care for more than 80 years," said a company statement. "As icons of the brand — and relevant symbols of integrity, perfection and team spirit for all generations — they are important to the brand and our campaigns."

"This is a very considered, long-term view of what will turn around the brand," Budweiser vice president of marketing Brian Perkins told the Journal.

Perkins also told the newspaper that Budweiser will be sponsoring food festivals in the hopes of identifying with 21- to 27-year-old "foodies."

Contributing: Associated Press


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