Going all the way back to 2001, Budweiser has featured its signature Clydesdales in a Super Bowl commercial every single year. That 17-year streak is coming to an end in 2018, however, E.J. Schultz of Adage.com reports.
Before you get too misty-eyed about this, however, Anheuser-Busch has a good reason for making the switch. Instead of featuring the Clydesdales in their annual Super Bowl commercial, the company is going with a 60-second ad to promote Anheuser-Busch InBev’s philanthropic water giveaway program.
Furthermore, Bud will feature its famous Clydesdales in a video that will be featured digitally, Schultz reports. So, if you need your Clydesdale fix, you can get it. On that note, here’s a couple of our favorites.
“We have a lot of fans that are asking for the Clydesdales in social media every time we are in the Super Bowl,” says Budweiser VP Ricardo Marques, per Schultz. “They are part of our Super Bowl plans, they will simply not be featured on [Super Bowl] Sunday.”
Per the report, Budweiser has been running its water program for 30 years and has “given away 79 million cans in that time.” This is simply the first time the company has ever advertised its efforts in this way, on such a stage.