Budweiser: The Great (Un)American Lager.

By: Billy Beerslugger

I watched a shit ton of sports this weekend.  Flyers playoffs, Phillies games, NFL Draft, Sixers Playoffs.  My Sports viewing was interrupted by a lot of commercials but the Budweiser commercials really stuck with me.

First of all I’m not a fan of Budweiser, I’m on the toilet for most of the day after drinking that stuff.  In my opinion it really doesn’t taste good either.

Budweiser has always had pretty good PR/Advertising .  The Was’ Up guys, The Frogs & Lizards and Clydesdale Horse and Real American Heroes commercials and radio spots you are probably familiar with.

I have two problems with Budweisers new tagline, “Budweiser: The Great American Lager”.

  1. Technically Budweiser is a pilsner.
  2. Anheuser-Busch is owned by Belgian Based Company InBev.

To elaborate, a pilsner is characterized as a “pale lager”.  So Budweiser is a lager but more specifically it is an “American-style pilsner“.  I’d feel a lot better if the had made their advertising campaign say, “The Great American Pilsner”.  It’s giving the beer drinking public the wrong impression about lager.  While lagers vary greatly in flavor, color and composition, I’d like to think of a lager as a little darker and a little heavier than Budweiser.

The more egregious oversight is saying Budweiser is the “Great American Lager” and the company that owns it is not even an American company.  That’s like if Coca Cola said it was America’s soda and it being owned by some company in Germany or Ford saying it’s America’s great truck but being owned by the Japanese.

Budweiser is brewed in the United States at least so I cannot go all “Buy American” on you even though it’s not owned by an American Company.  However, if you’re planning a cookout or at a bar go for the Real Great American lager, Yuengling.

Yuengling, based in Pottsville PA, is Americas oldest brewery established in 1829.  If you live in Eastern Pennsylvania you just call it Lager for short.  It is a wholly owned American company and is very close to being the largest American-owned brewer.