Anheuser-Busch InBev Names BBDO Lead Ad Agency For Bud Light Brand

Anheuser-Busch InBev is "hiring BBDO as lead agency for Bud Light domestically, while keeping line extensions such as Bud Light Platinum at Translation, which had been handling the entire account since last August," according to Schultz & Parekh of AD AGE. A-B VP/Marketing Paul Chibe said the two shops will "work together on Bud Light." BBDO will "handle the account from its Chicago outpost, known as Energy BBDO." The move marks the "third agency change in less than two years for Bud Light." The return to an Omnicom-owned agency "is noteworthy as Bud Light severed ties with one of its longest standing agencies in history, DDB, in October of 2011." Despite the move, Translation's workload "remains significant." Chibe said that in addition to "line extensions, the shop will also keep the NFL advertising assignments for core Bud Light that the agency is already working on for this fall." Super Bowl advertising "will be worked on by BBDO and Translation" (ADAGE.com, 6/19).