Beer commercials are life.
The Super Bowl means a lot of things: another year of sorrow for Cleveland Browns fans, another run on avocados for guacamole, and another series of Budweiser ads. Budweiser uses its long association with the NFL and huge Super Bowl ad buy to make a statement, and usually it is that the best way to market macrobrew to the third-largest nation on earth is patriotism. Sure, Budweiser is owned by Belgium-based AB InBev, but it wants us to know that it is American – going so far as to package Bud in “America” cans in the summers of 2016 and 2017.
In 2017, Budweiser’s signature Super Bowl ad was entitled “Born the Hard Way” and told the story of the Adolphus Busch, plucky immigrant who faced hardship in his journey to St. Louis to make a better beer. It made a statement, about how Americans see themselves and what values Budweiser wants people to think about when they are choosing between Bud and Miller. It also raised the ire of some conservatives: how dare Budweiser talk about the benefits of immigration?
But politics aside, the US is a nation of immigrants, and Budweiser is a beer that wants an all-American image. This might not appeal to all Americans, but it does appeal to enough of them that Budweiser remains the market share leader in the US.
By definition, domestic beers have to appeal to drinkers in their home countries, and they take different approaches to this. The US, Canada, and Mexico share the North American continent, a colonial history, and a democratic present. They have more in common than most nations, and yet, they squabble like the relatives that they are. One way this comes out is in how domestic beers are marketed in each country. Like the US, Canada is a nation of immigrants who settled a frontier, but its national image seems to be more about how it is different from the US. In 2000, Molson launched its rant commercial, which remains popular with Canadians thanks to YouTube.
Molson has built on that idea of being a uniquely Canadian beer for people who are uniquely Canadian with its multi-lingual “What Makes Someone Canadian” series, a celebration of immigration.
Of course, none of the languages featured is indigeous to Canada’s First Nations people. In Mexico, meanwhile, Victoria’s 2018 Day of the Dead commercial celebrates the nation’s pre-Columbian history and includes a poem read in Náhuatl, an indigenous language spoken by the Aztecs. The message is that Mexico is not like its continental neighbors, no matter how much the US and Canada want to celebrate diversity and immigration.
In summary:
Budweiser: USA! USA! USA!
Molson: We’re not the USA.
Mexico: Who cares?
By the way, Molson is owned by US-based Molson-Coors and Victoria is owned by US-based Constellation Brands. Hence, none of these national beers has domestic ownership – although the beer commericals are handled by local agencies.
