Tuesday, July 01, 2014

Super Bowl in July? Watch a New Budweiser Clydesdale Commercial for FIFA World Cup Round of 16



This article has nothing to do with hooves, except for the fact that the Budweiser Clydesdales have big, heavy, famous ones.

By tonight, everyone will have seen this commercial, but here's a preview of what will surely make a delightful culture clash during ESPN's broadcast later today of the USA-Belgium match as the next level of FIFA World Cup competition begins for Team USA in Brazil.




There's no way to explain what's going on here. There's no carefully scripted narrative like we are accustomed to at the Super Bowl. And that's just perfect, because FIFA World Cup is in Brazil, not a US city, and the very fact that the USA has made it to the Round of 16 was pretty unscripted, itself.

If you hack the play button, you'll see a girl on a surfboard, eagles, a dude in a black Corvette, a private jet taking off over a band of biker brothers racing a herd of Clydesdales, US troops in combat fatigues hugging girls in bikinis, a firefighter swinging an ax at a burning tree, the Budweiser Clydesdales watching a soccer game on a jumbo screen, fireworks, and a hitch driver whose horses just want to watch the game.

You'll probably see things I missed, too. I think that's the point.

The Clydesdales look completely out of place juxtaposed with images of beaches and soccer. We've bonded them in our minds with NFL football, but this is just the latest in an incongruous series of events related to World Cup that have made Americans scratch their heads at first, and then just grin and go with it. These horses are as out of place as the name of the USA on the scoreboard.

So, good for Budweiser for taking the Clydesdales out of context and into the center of the action of the world. I hope they bring Team USA a lot of luck.

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