Are you ready for some football?

Audiences tune in each year to watch the Super Bowl for one of two reasons: to watch a football game, or to watch the commercials. Every year, audiences expect great commercials, especially from beer brands like Budweiser, which becomes the topic of conversation days after the event. On January 29, 1995, Super Bowl XXIX had 41.3 rating, a 63 share, and 83.4 million impressions. The most common commercials likely to be found during televised sporting events would include soft drinks, automobiles, and alcoholic beverages.

The three Budweiser frogs, known as Bud, Weis, and Er, made their first television appearance at the 1995 Super Bowl. The commercial begins with a scene at nighttime, where three frogs are in a swamp. There’s a close up of Bud, rhythmically croaking his name. Later, Weis and Er join in, until they begin croaking in a sequence, forming the Budweiser name.

By 1994, Budweiser had been established as the King of Beers for the 30+ male crowd, and fund success in their campaigns, resulting in more sales for their defensive market. They weren’t successful in their offensive market, new beer drinkers 21-30, until Bud, Weis, and Er showed up; the frogs struck a cord with the audience. The commercial was rated #1 for three months, and tripled awareness for 21 to 30 year olds and led to more sales meaning Budweiser was finally able to take the #1 spot away from Miller Lite as the #1 selling beer in the world.

The audience for most sports programs is men, and the target demographic for beer is males, so the two coincide perfectly. One can except to see many beer commercials as they’re watching their favorite football team, which works. When you picture a Super Bowl party, you imagine a group of people eating chips and drinking beer while watching the game. It has now become a regular occurrence to drink beer as you watch a sports game. Sports and beer go hand-in-hand.

Had this commercial been released 10 years later, it would have become even more popular. Now, commercials are being put on YouTube and shared all over the world. At the time of this commercial, the Internet wasn’t part of our daily lives as it is now. Regardless of the different kind of world we were living in, it didn’t stop this commercial, and Bud, Weis, and Er from being something that’s still being talked about, almost 20 years later.

The Budweiser frogs appealed to its audience by being humorous. It was a truly clever and funny commercial, although there was no other message to it besides “drink Budweiser.” The commercial and the message are so simple, that it worked.