Daniel Koch

Professor Williams

English 101

11/20/10

Gentle Giant: The Budweiser Clydesdales

Towering over all others of its kind this majestic, strong, and proud animal is known by

all who have ever set their eyes on it. Whether they are running in snow covered fields or

pulling massive wagons there is no one who doesn’t recognize the amazing sight of the

Clydesdale horse. They are most well-known for their work as labor horses of the Anheuser-

Busch Budweiser beer company. For over seventy five years they have been working as labor

horses and as time passed soon became an icon for the company as their image of the

industrial spirit of America (The Clydesdales p.2).

These amazing creatures have been seen in countless advertisements as a symbol of

Budweiser and its enduring history as one of America’s original beer companies. They are as

common in American culture as hamburgers and hotdogs and have helped to make Budweiser

into the company it is today. In the commercial you see some of the Clydesdales in a snow

covered pasture walking around divided in to 2 groups the older horses and some young colts.

One of the colts rolls a snow ball and kicks it at one of the older horses. Then the other colts

join in and do the same. Having done this one of the older horse’s trots over toward the colts
and they step back in fear of being in trouble. Then without warning the older horse bumps the

trunk of the tree that the colts are standing under and covers them in snow.

Now you may be thinking how this has anything to do with Budweiser but in fact it has

everything to do with them. Sense everyone already associates the Clydesdales with their

company all they had to do was attract the audience with a witty commercial. So with them just

putting them in the commercial they were able to say who it was about without saying there

name till the end. This is a good tactic because it allows for the commercial to be more focused

on attracting people to watch it which in advertising means more people are likely to buy the

product being advertised.

There are also some themes in the commercial being used to target certain audiences.

At first glance it appears that the colt’s young age and energy has beaten the older horses, but

upon watching further the older horses use their wisdom to put the colts in their place. This

message of age and wisdom triumphing youth and enthusiasm is used to target older crowds in

to buying the product. In that same instance they also are targeting younger crowds with a

humorous commercial that will stick in there head when they go to get their next beer.

I interviewed 2 people to see what their opinion of the commercial was. The first

interview was with college student at Bridgewater State University by the name of Maggie

Koch. I asked her to watch the commercial and see what she interpreted from the commercial.

She said “it appears that they are using the horses as a representation of a person’s ageing”.

She went on to say “it seems that the younger horses are the person when they were young

and shows their youth, while the older horses show where the people are now as mature adults
that have the ability to indulge in the product being sold” (Koch2). My second interview was

with another student of Bridgewater University and also a full time laborer named Jeff Koch.

After watching the commercial I asked Jeff what he thought of the commercial. He said “I think

it is a poor form of advertising. It does not show any reason to buy the product, not to mention

the horse is an icon used by more than just the Budweiser Company. It shows no reason to

purchase this product over any other company” (Koch1).

Now these are of 2 completely different perspectives of the ad. One says that the ad

does a good job of attracting people of all ages, while the other said that they saw the ad as a

poor attempt to attract people. These show the one fatal flaw of advertising, not all people like

or interpret ads in the same way. Having only 2 opinions does not make or break the ad only

shows that everybody preserves things differently. Though considering that Budweiser has

been around for over 100 years, their record for winning over the masses would suggest that

their choice in using the Clydesdales as their sales aid must work well.
1 ) . K o c h , J e ff . P e r s o n a l I n t e r v i e w b y D a n i e l K o c h .

22/11/2010. 22 Nov 2010.

2). Koch, Maggie. Personal Interview.

22/11/2010. 22 Nov 2010.

"The Clydesdales." Budweiser.com. Anheuser-Busch Company,

2010. Web. 20 Nov 2010.