Bud to take vote on Clydesdales in Super Bowl

[February 01, 2010]  MILWAUKEE (AP) -- Anheuser-Busch isn't saying "neigh" just yet to putting its Clydesdales in the Super Bowl.

The longtime Super Bowl advertising leader will ask fans starting later Friday to vote on three possible Budweiser ads on the brand's Facebook page. One of them includes the company's trademark Clydesdale horses. All are by advertising agency DDB.

Earlier this week, the brewer showed off the contenders for its five minutes of Super Bowl ads. None included the horses, which were last absent from the game in 2001.

But the company said it got a 60-second cut of a new Clydesdale ad that it likes better than a half-minute one it saw previously, and now the horses just might be in again.

Keith Levy, marketing vice president for the St. Louis-based subsidiary of Anheuser-Busch InBev, said fans will have the next several days to vote. The game airs Feb. 7 on CBS.

The possible Clydesdale commercial tells the story of friendship between a young Clydesdale and a young steer.

The company regularly films more commercials than it needs for the Super Bowl and whittles them down through consumer testing, often just before the game. But this marks the first time the brewer is putting the ads up for a vote so publicly. It's also a change for a company that is typically guarded about its Super Bowl ads.

"We're very guided by what the consumers say and not necessarily what I think, or what the brand teams think or what the agencies think," Levy said. "We're selling beer to consumers so it's very important to us to make sure we're resonating with them."

[Associated Press; By EMILY FREDRIX]

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