A-B's Super Bowl Efforts Will Include Spot For Stella Artois

Anheuser-Busch's Super Bowl XLV ad plans include a 60-second spot featuring the Budweiser Clydesdales and a separate ad for Stella Artois, the "first time A-B has pushed an import during the Super Bowl," according to Todd Frankel of the ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH. The 60-second Stella ad set to air during Fox' coverage of the Feb. 6 game is a "sign of A-B working more closely with its corporate parent, Anheuser-Busch InBev." A-B President Dave Peacock said, "The brand has done really well. It's gotten to the point where the awareness is good." Meanwhile, Frankel notes the Clydesdales commercial is "so good, apparently, that A-B is teasing it with two 15-second commercials to run during this weekend's NFL conference championship games." A-B purchased a total of 3 1/2 minutes of "ad time for this year's game, at the low end of its historical ad buys." But Peacock said that it is "a normal fluctuation" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 1/21). AD AGE's E.J. Schultz noted A-B ran "nine ads for a total of five minutes" during last year's Super Bowl broadcast. The Stella spot, from independent agency Mother, "continues the campaign launched late last year that features '60s-era European settings in ads that target well-educated, upscale beer drinkers." Peacock said the Super Bowl is the "right time and a great property to enhance the brand's awareness and do so in a way that's very consistent with its position and its imagery." A-B's three Bud Light ads during the Super Bowl will continue the "Here We Go" campaign that debuted during last year's game (ADAGE.com, 1/20). In addition, A-B InBev said that it has "locked up its position as the only national beer advertiser in the Super Bowl" through '14. The brewer has advertised during the Super Bowl for 23 years, and this year "will keep its spot as the game's largest ad buyer" (AP, 1/20).

IN A COMFORT ZONE: In N.Y., Stuart Elliott notes this year's Super Bowl audience will see a "batch of busy, glossy new commercials infused with time-tested entertainment elements like celebrities, animals, attractive young women and yes, babies." Critics often "deride such content as corny or predictable," but ads "replete with mainstays or memes are meant to appeal to the mass audience that tunes in each year for the Super Bowl." As such, it is "not surprising" that E*Trade again will use talking babies in its Super Bowl efforts. The company "intends to run one commercial in the third quarter of the game and another immediately after the game ends." Plans also call for a "baby to 'talk' with Fox Sports during a segment of the pregame show." Elliott notes E*Trade and its agency, Grey N.Y., are "deciding between two commercials for the two slots." One spot "features a baby who does well enough investing through Etrade.com that he can afford a tailor -- and the tailor is not doing too badly, either." E*Trade CMO Nick Utton said the other presents "a very educated baby discussing the merits" of the company with another character (N.Y. TIMES, 1/21).

STAYING FOCUSED: In Denver, Electa Draper reports nonprofit group Focus on the Family's commercial starring Broncos QB Tim Tebow, which debuted during last year's Super Bowl, "will receive the National Religious Broadcasters award for Best Television Commercial at its February convention in Nashville" (DENVER POST, 1/21).