Here we have an attractive couple flirting, dancing, getting
dressed in nice evening clothes, all while drinking Bud Light Platinum, after
which they end up in a crowd of trendy young adults, and then Justin Timberlake
comes onstage and starts singing, while the crowd hold up bottles of Bud Light
Platinum like people used to hold up lit lighters back when everyone used to
smoke. Well, this ad reminded me of a very different scenario having to do with
beer bottles at a nightclub concert.
It was in the early 1990s, and a band called Raging Slab was
opening for the Red Hot Chili Peppers at The Ritz in New York City. Well,
apparently the crowd didn’t think the Lynyrd Skynyrdesque dulcet tones of
Raging Slab were appropriate for a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, and so they
let the band know how displeased they were by throwing their beer bottles at
the band, and especially at the singer. Well, the band successfully dodged most
of the bottles and played a whole set, after which I’m sure they were pretty
wet and upset. (That scene in The Blues Brothers where they play at the Country
& Western bar is pretty similar, except that The Ritz didn’t have any
chicken wire fencing in front of the stage to stop the bottles.) Shortly after
this concert, I believe The Ritz stopped serving bottled beer and started using
red plastic cups.
Every time I see an ad showing people watching a concert
while drinking beer out of bottles, it makes me think of this experience. And
I’ll bet I’m not alone in thinking of this, either.
Here’s the spot that reminds me of a beer bottle
bombardment:
