Some of the most successful ads in history are built on almost nothing. The first Budweiser Frogs commercial had no people, no plot and a script of three syllables.
The ad
It opens on a swamp at night. A frog, Bud, croaks his name. Another, Weis, joins in, then a third, Er. For about ten seconds they croak randomly. Then they fall into rhythm: “Bud… weis… er… Bud-weis-er.” The croaking speeds up as the camera pulls back to reveal a bar with a glowing neon Budweiser sign.
The spot debuted during Super Bowl XXIX in 1995. It was created by David Swaine, Michael Smith and Mark Choate of the agency DMB&B in St. Louis, and directed by Gore Verbinski, who would later direct the first three Pirates of the Caribbean films.
Why it caught on
The frogs were lifelike puppets, and later versions were built by the Hollywood animatronics company The Character Shop, with silicone skins over mechanical frames that let the frogs breathe, puff out their throats, blink and move their eyes. In one sequel, Bud shoots out his sticky tongue to grab a passing Budweiser truck and gets launched through the air like a bungee, to a Cajun “Yee-haw!”
The appeal was simple:
- The brand name was the joke. Every time the frogs croaked, viewers heard the product name, repeated in a way that was fun to imitate.
- It was short and silly. In a Super Bowl full of big productions, three frogs in a swamp stood out.
- It was built for repetition. The croak was easy to copy, so people did.
The original is still regularly listed among the best Super Bowl commercials; MSNBC ranked it No. 5 in 2004.
The backlash
The frogs’ popularity with young viewers became a problem. In 1996 Mothers Against Drunk Driving called for Anheuser-Busch to pull the ads, calling them the “Joe Camel” of beer advertising, a reference to the cartoon mascot tobacco company R.J. Reynolds had been criticized for aiming at kids. MADD’s president said the ads targeted teens and young children, citing research that more than half of children aged 6 to 11 recognized the frogs.
Anheuser-Busch held its own news conference nearby and refused, saying it saw no reason to halt the campaign and that parents talking to their children about alcohol would do more than blaming TV ads.
What came next
The frogs stayed, but they gained co-stars. Starting at Super Bowl XXXII, a new campaign by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners introduced two wisecracking chameleons, Louie and Frankie. Louie, with a Brooklyn accent, was jealous of the frogs and plotted against them, even hiring an inept ferret hitman, in a storyline that ran for several years.
More than two decades later, AB InBev brought a frog back to help launch Bud Light in the U.K., a sign of how much recognition the characters still held.
Why “mixed”
As advertising, the frogs were a triumph: memorable, loved and endlessly repeated. But the same qualities that made them work, cute animal characters and a catchy chant, drew sustained criticism that they appealed to children. For an alcohol brand, that tension is the lasting lesson of the campaign.