The inside story behind the famous Budweiser "Frogs" campaign demonstrates the power of bold risk-taking. How taking a chance gave Anheuser-Busch the top two beer brands in the world.
In late summer 1994, the new Budweiser brand director Mike Brooks sent a memo to two top executives at D’Arcy Advertising, Jim Palumbo and Mark Choate, telling them that Anheuser-Busch wanted a new campaign for Bud, one that would “contemporize” the brand and make it more appealing to the twenty-one-to thirty-year-old segment.
He asked them to give the assignment out to creative teams in all D’Arcy’s offices--New York, Detroit, and Los Angeles, in addition to St. Louis--and present their best work within a month. Thirty days later, Choate, Palumbo, and a handful of D’Arcy creative types presented Brooks with dozens of campaign ideas in a session that lasted several hours. Brooks was struck by one concept in particular from a young creative team in St. Louis, Dave Swaine and Michael Smith. Presented on an “art card,” a twelve-by-sixteen-inch piece of white foam board, it was a four-panel drawing of frogs sitting on lily pads with a Budweiser sign in the background. The card was augmented by a thirty-second cassette recording of frogs croaking, “Bud . . . bud . . . weis . . . bud . . . weis . . . bud . . . weis . . . bud . . . weis . . . er.”
It was beautifully simple and so totally off-the-wall that Brooks couldn’t help laughing at the absurdity. Of all the things he was shown, “Frogs” stood out.
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