Ambev SA "is pitting its top Brazil beer against the company’s Argentine best seller in World Cup advertisements that play up a rivalry between the soccer-obsessed nations," according to Sciaudone & Spinetto of BLOOMBERG. In Skol’s TV ad, Brazilian fans "lure their Argentine counterparts into a house that’s then packed up and shot out of a cannon back to Buenos Aires." Quilmes’s dig "is more subtle." At the end of the commercial a narrator intones, “You’ll regret you issued even one ticket,” referencing reports that demand for tickets from Argentines topped supply. Houston-based marketing strategy consultant FrogDog CEO Leslie Farnsworth said that the fact that both brands belong to Anheuser-Busch’s Ambev SA "makes the strategy unusual." Leuven, Belgium-based Inbev "also owns U.S. favorite Budweiser and Belgium’s Stella Artois." The two nations "faced off on the soccer field earlier this week, with Belgium beating the American team 2-1." Farnsworth: “Playing into that national fervor, especially around the World Cup, makes a lot of sense. I don’t know of a precedent where a company has owned both brands and then has decided to position them like this” (BLOOMBERG, 7/2).
