Budweiser

Overview

Perhaps best known for its Super Bowl Clydesdale ads, Budweiser is among the world's most popular beer brands. It was among the first beers to achieve national distribution in the late 19th century, thanks to its revolutionary refrigeration and pasteurization techniques, setting the stage for the modern US beer industry.

Founded in the 1850s as the "Bavarian Brewery," the company was acquired in 1860 by Eberhard Anheuser. He sold half of it to his son-in-law Adolphus Busch in 1869, forming the partnership that would become Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, Missouri.

In the 1870s, Carl Conrad, a St. Louis distributor, traveled through a town in Bohemia (today the Czech Republic) called "Budweis" and drank a pale lager. Upon returning home, he worked with Anheuser-Busch to brew its own light lager, marketing it under the name "Budweiser." The beer became Anheuser-Busch's first national flagship product, but its origin story led to one of the longest-running trademark disputes in modern commercial history.

Historically, Budweiser has been among the Super Bowl's biggest ad spenders. Its Clydesdales have appeared in 47 Super Bowl commercials over the years—Anheuser-Busch has spent an estimated $529M on Super Bowl spots over the past five decades.

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