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Bud Light's Super Bowl Ad Is... Weird

by Kristie Rohwedder

On Friday, Bud Light posted an extended version of its Super Bowl ad to YouTube, and I'm going to come right out and say it: The three-minute, 45-second spot is flippin' strange. Not bad, just strange. And unpredictable. And memorable (which, hey! That's the goal, right?). The version we’ll see during Sunday’s game will be 90 seconds long. (Could you imagine if Bud Light shelled out enough dough to occupy nearly four minutes of precious Super Bowl ad time? Aye yi yi.) The commercial ends with the tagline “Bud Light: The Perfect Beer for Whatever Happens,” and that’s more or less the theme of the vid.

At the top of the ad, a woman named Kelly introduces herself to a man named Ian at a bar. “If I give this [bottle of Bud Light] to you, are you up for whatever happens next?” Kelly asks Ian. “I think I can do that,” Ian replies, smiling.

Kelly is an actor. Ian is not an actor. There are hidden cameras everywhere.

"What happens next?" you ask. Oh, boy. Buckle up. Kelly takes Ian on a 5K run. Post-run, they chug Bud Lights. Then, they go to a sauna. After they steam for about 20 minutes, they shotgun a BL. Kelly hands Ian a bag of Oreos and a glass of Bud Light. “Get dunkin’,” she says. They dunk the Oreos in the beer and eat them. Due to the dehydration, beer, and cookies, Ian starts to feel woozy.

“I guess I was not up for any of that,” Ian says as he throws up beer-soaked Oreos. THE END.

Oh, wait. That’s not how the commercial goes at all. So sorry. If only the ad summed up the actual events of Ian's strange night in a nice and tidy way. OH WAIT. It does!:

Bud Light. The perfect beer for when you somehow find yourself in a limo with Reggie Watts and some bachelorettes, then get styled by Minka Kelly before Don Cheadle, a llama named Lilly, and the identical twin of the girl you just met take you to a party, where you defeat Arnold Schwarzenegger in a sudden-death ping pong match, that puts you onstage with OneRepublic.

Uh huh. Yep. Lots of cameos. Lots of weird. And yes, there is a llama.

Image: officialbudlight/YouTube