“You don’t look like you’re from around here.” This short, hostile sentence brings the big-name Super Bowl ad that already has everyone talking.
The commercials we’ll see on Sunday are almost as hotly anticipated as the game itself. Access to the nation’s largest audience doesn’t come cheap: Brands pay at least $5 million dollars for 30 seconds of air time. Young adults love those commercials; over one third of millennials enjoy the ads or the halftime show more than the football game.
Anheuser-Busch ads are an expected part of the big game. The gorgeous Clydesdales and adorable puppies have been a winning combination for the beer brand. But this year, they’ve traded in the standard tearjerker animal ads for something far more political – and timely, though it’s set in the 1800s.
The ad shows a young man immigrating to America. He boards a wooden ship, endures a treacherous trans-Atlantic journey, and stands in line at the point of disembarkation, all to get a piece of paper stamped that allows him into the country.
Here we see the most politically-charged moment of the ad: The young man is told, “Welcome to America!” at the immigration processing center. He exits onto a busy street where the welcome is chillier: “You’re not wanted here!” and “Go back home!” rise above the din of the chaotic street.
Does this sound familiar? President Trump’s temporary ban on immigrants from 7 majority Muslim countries has sparked massive protests at airports across the country. Most millennial Republicans fall on the “Welcome to America!” end of the immigration beliefs spectrum. 57% of millennials who identify as Republican agreed with the statement, “immigrants strengthen our country,” according a Pew Research study.
From there, the man travels to St. Louis by ship (a ship which catches fire, no less) and eventually meets a man who introduces himself as Eberhard Anheuser. That’s when we learn our protagonist’s name: Adolphus Busch.
This is the romanticized origin story of Anheuser-Busch, all packed into 60 seconds. (This ad is twice as long as the usual 30-second commercial – meaning that it may cost upward of $10 million to air.)
Anheuser Busch has invested heavily in its classically American image. It started in America, though it is now owned by a Belgian-Brazilian parent company. Budweiser even rebranded itself as “America” throughout the summer leading up to the 2016 election.
Though the ad was filmed before Election Day and conceptualized long before President Trump had secured the GOP nomination, current events have cast its message in new light. This is no longer simply a dramatic story about a man who first brewed Budweiser over 100 years ago. It is now – whether the advertiser likes it or not – an example of how immigrants and entrepreneurs are part of this nation’s fabric.
Watch the ad below:
