Budweiser could pay price for being "America's Beer"

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Budweiser spends nearly half a billion dollars a year promoting itself as America's beer -- a pitch that could soon get a lot tougher to make.

For decades, St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos Inc (BUD.N) has pushed its Budweiser and Bud Light brands to mainstream America with an award-winning mix of campaigns that are hardly subtle in their patriotism.

The company uses red, white and blue as its colors; it employs soldiers, Clydesdale horses, and stock cars in its advertising. One past slogan announced: "American owned. Brewed here. Born here." A current ad declares that its beer is a "Great American Lager."

The branding may not be so easy to maintain if Anheuser-Busch is taken over by Belgium's InBev NV INTB.BR, which has made a roughly $46 billion bid for its U.S. rival.

"They would most certainly not abandon their position, but certainly they are going to have a tough time," said Kevin Swanepoel, a veteran ad executive and currently president of The One Club, a nonprofit group that awards advertising achievements.

Already websites have cropped up calling for the public to apply pressure to keep the company out of InBev's hands. One, www.saveAB.com, declares, "Anheuser-Busch is an American original ... Now, our city, our state, our nation and our workers are being threatened with the loss of A-B to foreign investors."

'GUYS MAKE BEER'

Among the notable ads from Anheuser-Busch in recent years is the Super Bowl spot that ran after September 11, 2001, that showed its famous Clydesdale horses bowing in tribute to the victims of the attack.

"I was sitting around a room when that advertisement ran with a bunch of rednecks ... guys who love football ... and they were sitting there with tears running down their faces because their beer understood how they felt," said Ted Parrack, chief strategic officer of Colangelo, a Connecticut-based marketing agency.

"That's gone if that becomes an international company."

Last year, Anheuser-Busch was among the 50 largest advertisers in the United States, spending about $475 million, according to data from TNS Media Intelligence. It uses Omnicom Group Inc's (OMC.N) DDB/Chicago as its lead ad agency, while InBev uses Interpublic Group of Cos Inc's (IPG.N) Lowe Worldwide for its Stella marketing.

Anheuser-Busch's advertising, which often wins industry awards, typically swings between spots for Budweiser that pull at heartstrings and those for Bud Light that go for laughs. One current Bud Light campaign is built entirely around the word "dude," used repeatedly in a variety of ways.

"There's no real reason for InBev to take away from the tradition Anheuser-Busch has built," said Austin Wilson, publisher of Draft magazine. "The Anheuser-Busch brand is just so strong in this country. I'd be surprised if it was even possible to detract from that brand."

But its ads can also ruffle feathers, and the brewer would shoulder some of the blame if its marketing runs into trouble following a takeover, executives said.

They are quick to point out the company took several shots at rival Miller when it was purchased by a foreign company, South African Breweries, creating SABMiller Plc (SAB.L).

One Club's Swanepoel, who is South African but has been living in the United States for the past decade, recalls the bad taste those ads left with him.

"I was really angry when they started this ad war," he said. "I remember I absolutely boycotted Budweiser. When people brought it over, I made them leave it outside."

Now, Colangelo's Parrack says the "backlash will be huge" if Anheuser-Busch is taken over by a foreign-based company.

"How do Americans think about beer? Guys make beer. Corporations don't make beer. Something called InBev makes Budweiser? And there's nobody named Busch around? What?"

(Reporting by Paul Thomasch; editing by Patrick Fitzgibbons and Jeffrey Benkoe)