Release and Reception
Anheuser-Busch were initially nervous of the irreverent style of the ads. Consumer testing however proved them to be very popular. The ads not only received tremendous consumer response, but also won many awards including the prestigious Grand Prix for Radio at the Annual International Advertising Festival in Cannes. The popularity of the series led to many of the commercials being traded on peer to peer file sharing networks. Bootleg recordings of the ads were sold on eBay.
In 2003, Anheuser-Busch released a collection of 20 ads on CD titled, Bud Light Salutes Real Men of Genius, Vol 1 to be sold in the company's online store Two additional volumes were released soon after. In 2005 a limited edition compilation combined all prior volumes into one release: Bud Light Salutes Real Men of Genius Volumes 1, 2 and 3.
Volume 1, Volume 2, & Volume 3 contained 20 radio spots. All versions have since gone out of print.
In late 2006, Anheuser-Busch sponsored a comedy tour titled "Real Men of Comedy" starring John Heffron, Joe Rogan, and Charlie Murphy. This tour featured the announcer (Stacker) and singer (Bickler) performing several of their famous commercials live at the beginning of the show. Stacker and Bickler performed regional versions of the spots to support Budweiser's comedy tour at radio stations and concert-sponsored venues such as Lollapalooza.
As late as 2010 American Comedy Network was producing parodies of the commercials.
Read more about this topic: Real Men Of Genius
Famous quotes containing the words release and, release and/or reception:
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“We read poetry because the poets, like ourselves, have been haunted by the inescapable tyranny of time and death; have suffered the pain of loss, and the more wearing, continuous pain of frustration and failure; and have had moods of unlooked-for release and peace. They have known and watched in themselves and others.”
—Elizabeth Drew (1887–1965)
“But in the reception of metaphysical formula, all depends, as regards their actual and ulterior result, on the pre-existent qualities of that soil of human nature into which they fall—the company they find already present there, on their admission into the house of thought.”
—Walter Pater (1839–1894)