Wednesday, December 30, 2009

80's Corner


I talked about the California Raisins last week, and it brought up another 1980's marketing campaign from that era ... and surprise, surprise ... it was by a beer company ... and even more surprising, it was by Budweiser. The one-time American brewery kicked off an era of "animal-marketing" with Spuds McKenzie, a pit-bull wearing Bud Light sweatshirts and sunglasses promoting Bud Light.

It seemed like no matter where Spuds would waddle, there was a party to be had. Spuds was the man ... er, dog about town. Whether it was pool parties, club parties, or sports games at bars, Spuds was there with a throng of party-goers. No, Spuds never talked, and was never really seen with a beer in his paw, but that didn't stop him from partying like a rock star!

Here's the thing, I was well-below the legal drinking age, but man did I want to hang with Spuds, wear Bud Light shirts, and drink beer. In fact, I think I did have a Spuds McKenzie Bud Light t-shirt back then. I'm not sure what this said about me or society back then ...

4 comments:

sirgeb said...

I think you're the reason they stopped this marketing campaign.

The whole marketing beer to kids stigma could also be why they stopped the Budweiser Frogs commercials and the Bud Ice Penguin commercials.

Doo-bee-doo-bee-doo...

El Padrino said...

spud was the man

DILLIGAF said...

Best marketing over here right now is by comparethemarket.com , a site for comparing car insurance costs.

They're using a Meerkat complaining that people are going to comparethemeerkat.com by mistake for car insurance.

Very clever and very funny ads.

Both sites do exist by the way.

sirgeb said...

The meerkat thing sounds very similar to our auto insurance company, Geico. Except, replace the russian meerkat with a british geko who's directing people to geico.

I wonder who stole who's idea first.