Look at This and Drink This

March 18, 2007 2:53 PM

Bud BlueBlew It With a typically punny Hollywood Reporter headline, the news is out that Anheuser-Busch's new video site with Original Content (launched during the Super Bowl, naturally) is not nearly as popular as expected. The promoters blame the registration/age-verification requirement for discouraging users (noted here earlier today), but 21 State Attorneys General say it's not discouraging enough. But is the content any good? Here are a couple reviews.
No, I didn't link or even mention the site's obvious address. I don't want anybody to think I actually encourage stuff like this ;)
posted by wendell (23 comments total)

Dude, it was not at all obvious to me, probably because this is the first I've heard of the whole mess.

For my fellow inter-troglodytes, here's the linky.
posted by grobstein at 3:17 PM on March 18, 2007

I wonder if they split-tested the registration page to see what falloff was -- *Click on animated spalsh page, fill out webfo... I wonder what's happening on YouTube* Rule one (point oh!) of internet content: Content up front, bullshit on the cutting room floor.
posted by VulcanMike at 3:26 PM on March 18, 2007

Odd that Bud's color is red, considering how Pepsi-Bluish this post is.

wendell, you corporate lackey you.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:27 PM on March 18, 2007

Hey, grobstein linked to the site, not me.
posted by wendell at 3:29 PM on March 18, 2007

What VulcanMike said - I can't see people going to BudTV when YouTube already exists without the entrance gateway BS.
posted by mrbill at 3:30 PM on March 18, 2007

Also, if liquor advertising is so dangerous that it legally requires initial age verification, why the heck can they show liquor ads during events like the SuperBowl, when the content is forced down the throats of viewers of all ages?
posted by VulcanMike at 3:30 PM on March 18, 2007

"Hey, grobstein linked to the site, not me."

Yes, let's consider that for a moment, shall we?

grob is, of course, an anagram for Borg, the monolithic collection of drones working together toward a single stated purpose, assimilating all others.

stein obviously is the vessel in which beer is normally found.

Taken together we see that grobstein is yet another of Bud's corporate shills, a cog in the giant marketing machine whose sole purpose is to convince all Americans to drink their shitty beer.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 3:34 PM on March 18, 2007

When you say Bud you've said it all.
posted by amyms at 3:36 PM on March 18, 2007

Also, the Czech Republic wants its name back. Since 1265, beer drinkers. Since 1265.
posted by VulcanMike at 3:37 PM on March 18, 2007

why the heck can they show liquor ads...

Actually, you haven't seen an ad for liquor on TV since the 1970's. Beer and wine, yes, but no ads for liquor.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 3:52 PM on March 18, 2007

Actually, you haven't seen an ad for liquor on TV since the 1970's. Beer and wine, yes, but no ads for liquor.

That strikes me as a wee bit unlikely, since I've seen ads for Bailey's, Hennessey cognac, etc, etc. You might be thinking of cigarette advertising.
posted by jedicus at 3:55 PM on March 18, 2007

I see those annoying "DiSarronno" ads all the time, and I'm in the US. Isn't amaretto a liquor? And smirnoff too I think.
posted by macadamiaranch at 3:56 PM on March 18, 2007

bah. "Hennessy"
posted by jedicus at 3:56 PM on March 18, 2007

Actually, you haven't seen an ad for liquor on TV since the 1970's.

I thought that ban was lifted in the late 90s? I regularly see ads for things like Jack Daniels, DiSoronno, Baileys, etc. on television.
posted by amyms at 3:58 PM on March 18, 2007

Oops, looks like jedicus, macadamiaranch and I were all posting the same thing.
posted by amyms at 4:00 PM on March 18, 2007

I thought that ban was lifted in the late 90s?

IIRC there was never a ban, just a voluntary agreement between spirit manufacturers/distillers that was voluntarily terminated.
posted by Kwantsar at 4:12 PM on March 18, 2007

Maybe AB should have just made a LARGE cash offer for Fark.
posted by R. Mutt at 4:34 PM on March 18, 2007

I guess I missed the resumption because by then I had mostly stopped watching TV. Sorry about that.
posted by Steven C. Den Beste at 4:45 PM on March 18, 2007

That IS something you'd need a TV to know about.
posted by wendell at 4:49 PM on March 18, 2007

Maybe AB should have just made a LARGE cash offer for Fark.

Dr Pepper tried to do that a couple of years or so ago. The offer was declined.
posted by First Post at 6:39 PM on March 18, 2007

forced down the throats of viewers of all ages

Really? I didn't find out it was Superbowl Sunday until after-superbowl Monday.
posted by dmd at 7:22 PM on March 18, 2007

Everyone should drink bud!

I live in St. Louis, my city would collapse if all of you stopped...especially since I don't drink it myself...
posted by rfbjames at 10:40 PM on March 18, 2007

From the first review link:

...one series features three women making over an unkempt guy.

Sheisse films? Seems like it should have been a great success.
posted by team lowkey at 12:42 AM on March 19, 2007