Jay Pearcy got some great news: he is the winner of an Anheuser-Busch contest that sends him and three buddies to one of the world’s most popular destinations for beer lovers—the Oktoberfest in Munich, Germany.
Pearcy, of Malvern, PA, was one of several thousand who participated in the Who Would You Have a Beer With contest, sponsored by “Here’s to Beer,” an industry development effort led by Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light.
The contest asked adults to submit a 50-word or less essay describing who they would most like to have a beer with and why. Five finalists received a video camera to record their stories. The stories were posted at Herestobeer.com, so visitors could vote for their favorite. The site has received 350,000 hits since February, where the Here’s to Beer effort kicked off with a Super Bowl spot. The contest ran April 3 through May 31.
Pearcy chose President Roosevelt as his preferred drinking buddy, citing the president’s efforts to repeal Prohibition. In his essay, he said, “There can’t be anything better than the taste of the first legal beer in more than a decade, in such a powerful place as The White House, with such a powerful man as Roosevelt, immediately after the repeal of Prohibition. Talk about a great end to a dry spell.”
The contest was an overlay to an ad campaign that tapped the same theme. Spots showed filmmaker Spike Lee, The Sopranos cast member Michael Imperioli and broadcaster Joe Buck reflecting on who they would each have as a beer buddy.
The Here’s to Beer campaign has three goals: to remind consumers of the social value of beer, to romance the product and the art of brewing and to encourage consumers to view and enjoy beer differently.
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