Budweiser Historical American Moments Ad

This is the wonderful-looking Super Bowl ad where they show scenes from American history, like the end of Prohibition, V-J Day, etc., and the music is some guy rapping over the great classic song “She Sells Sanctuary” by The Cult, from back when I was in school. And everyone is enjoying a bottle of Budweiser in celebration of these events. (Wow: what are the chances they’d all be choosing the same beer to drink in all these important historical reinactments? It’s almost like it was staged or something!)

Okay, I love this commercial, except for one thing: They really should have used clips of period music for each of the scenarios they showed in the spot. Most people probably are familiar enough with the period music, so long as the ad people chose the right tracks. But seriously: having some guy rap over a great Rock N’ Roll classic just kills whatever period feel they worked so hard to achieve with the visuals and all the film production. (And that’s by far the most expensive part of making an ad like this!) Way to go, guys! (Maybe they could have used the same old song in different styles, constantly changing with the times, like, say, maybe: “The Charleston”, or even better, perhaps: “Happy Days Are Here Again”? And it could have gone from The Jazz Age through Big Band and Swing, Rock N’ Roll, Motown, Disco, Punk Rock, Hip Hop, etc., to match the time period of each historical moment shown. Simply record a version of the song in each style with the same click track, and then edit between the musical styles to match the image’s time period in the video. See what I mean? I think that would have worked extremely well to accentuate the period vignettes so they felt real, but also, since it would simply be swapping out musical styles of the same song, it would have felt entirely unobtrusive.)

And there’s another thing, too. (And I mean no disrespect here.) When you have some rapper talking over a great classic song, it kinda feels like some rude person is standing up in the audience and delivering a monologue over a great classic movie in a theater while I’m trying to watch the movie: it’s just an unwelcome distraction, like if someone spray-painted a graffiti tag over a masterpiece of painting in a museum. (Plus, since the song the rapper is talking over is actually from The Cult, an English band, it makes me think of England. But isn’t this commercial depicting important American historical events? It’s like using The Beatles’ music during footage of an Elvis concert! Seriously, no offense to England or anything, but this ad is about American historical moments! So how about using American music for American historical moments? I know, English music is great; but can’t we use American music just this once?) I understand that not all rappers can write music themselves, and some of these Hip Hop remixes are great (this one is pretty good, actually), but still: he’s talking over an English band’s music! And so, if he must talk over someone else’s song, how about having it be over an American song for scenes of Americana? Plus, Hip Hop remixes are not all that historically accurate for early 20th Century vignettes. This music just doesn’t work at all for this ad’s visual scenarios until the very end (I’m sorry, but it’s true.), so seriously: WTF?

But I’ll bet The Cult is laughing all the way to the bank! They’re a great band, by the way! Nothing against them. But context is everything, and here, this music does not work! It’s like if they showed us scenes from a famous old Opera, but we heard Punk Rock music accompanying it; or if we saw the Grand Ole Opry, but heard Hip Hop music instead: it simply sticks out like a sore thumb as being the wrong music cue for what filmed images we’re looking at, and as such it makes us feel like something has gone wrong with the TV set. And that distracts from the message of the commercial, which is why it’s inadvisable. It’s all about a clear message, you see. Or at least, it ought to be. And if you’re thinking about the appropriateness of the music selection, you’re not thinking about Budweiser. And then the ad doesn’t help them as much as it could. And let’s be clear here: that’s the only reason this ad exists: to help sell Budweiser.

And again, I love the visual elements and concept of this commercial, but for this ad to have worked perfectly, I think accompanying music appropriate to each historical era shown would have worked much better, especially if it’s switching between period-authentic performances of the same song (a well-known classic American celebratory song from the Prohibition era, like: “Happy Days Are Here Again”) to appropriately accompany the images, as I described above. And it’s disappointing to see such a great ad overshadowed by inappropriate music! I’m glad that this rapper is introducing The Cult to a new generation and everything, and no offense to him (I think this is a good piece of Hip Hop for sure), but it just isn’t appropriate music for the ‘30s, the ‘40s, the ‘50s, etc., and we all know it! It only really works for the contemporary block party scene at the very end of the spot. And it’s too bad, because with the right music clips, this ad would have been amazing for all ages to see, even if they don’t drink beer. And it would have been a great cultural time-capsule forever, as well as a beer ad! And for having that part of it screwed up after all the great work they did, this ad team should be truly disappointed indeed.

Here’s the Budweiser commercial I’m talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r913a-0OJiw

And here’s an old recording of “Happy Days Are Here Again” from 1930 (The part of the song I would propose using begins at around 0:22 seconds, and the soundtrack could be swapped out for a different musical style for each scene change in a way that seemed accurate for the time period we’re being shown, all the way up to a Hip Hop/House/Techno remix for the DJ block party at the end, but done in such a way that the song never stops playing in sequence: it's just the musical style that changes, and not the song. I would also propose recording the song a bit more up-tempo to keep up with the energy and jubilation of the celebratory atmosphere in these scenes.):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iL0Qt7IF8Q4&feature=related