Budweiser has revealed a new Super Bowl ad that tells the story of Anheuser-Busch co-founder Adolphus Busch, who immigrated to the U.S. from Germany in the 1850’s.
The commercial follows Busch from his time traveling across the Atlantic, to his less than warm welcome to America, to jumping off of a flaming riverboat, to finally arriving in St. Louis to begin brewing beer.
The Super Bowl spot may play like pointed political commentary, given the current debate surrounding immigration and President Trump’s travel ban. But Budweiser vice president Ricardo Marques insists that is not the case.
“It’s true, Adolphus Busch made an incredible journey to this country, and that’s really what this is about,” Marques told Ad Week. “It’s about his vision, his dream, everything that he doest to achieve that. Even though it happened in the 1850s, it’s a story that is super relevant today. That’s what we’re honing in on; it’s the pursuit, the effort, the passion, the drive, the hard work, the ambition, that’s really what this is about more than anything else.”
“There’s really no correlation with anything else that’s happening in the country,” he continued. “We believe this is a universal story that is very relevant today because probably more than any other period in history today the world pulls you in different directions, and it’s never been harder to stick to your guns.”
