Budweiser claims it didn't set out to make a moving political statement with its new Super Bowl commercial -- but strange family sex videosfate evidently had other ideas.
The ad follows Budweiser's immigrant founder, Adolphus Busch, along his quest from Germany to America in the late 1800s. Upon arriving, he isn't exactly greeted with open arms right away.
"You're not wanted here," a man growls at him immediately after his immigration papers are stamped.
Given the current political climate around immigration and refugees, it's not hard to see how one might take the message of the ad as a comment on the times.
SEE ALSO: K-Cups for beer? Keuring and Anheuser Busch team up for a booze dispenser.But Budweiser's vice president of marketing, Ricardo Marques, told Adweekit's not intended that way.
“There’s really no correlation with anything else that’s happening in the country,” he told the magazine. “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.”
Indeed, according to Adweek's behind-the-scenes look at the commercial's making, the idea was settled in October, when safe money still had Hillary Clinton winning the White House and Trump's Muslim ban was just a pipe dream.
But months of hard work and millions of dollars later, the Anheuser-Busch-owned brand now finds itself airing a poignant story about the value of immigration before more than 100 million Americans as Trump's controversial travel ban dominates national headlines.
That's a bold move for a company that spent its last Super Bowl slot grouching about craft beers.
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