Budweiser to go by the name ‘America’ until presidential vote

Anheuser-Busch will replace the brand name Budweiser with the word “America” until November, as Americans prepare to take the country in their hands by voting in the US presidential election.

The change will take place in the US on 12oz cans and bottles beginning later this month, advertising magazine AdAge was told. America will replace the style of the existing brand text and will be accompanied by patriotic phrases such as “indivisible since 1776” and “e pluribus unum”, the country’s motto.

The redesign, from creative agency Jones Knowles Ritchie, will be supported by a media campaign running through the summer, which will include television advertisements airing from June.

The cans also feature lines from American singer-songwriter Woody Guthrie – though his estate, the Guardian newspaper reported, were “nonplussed” about the use of his lyrics on the special-edition Budweiser packs.

“You have this wave of patriotism that is going to go up and down throughout the summertime,” Anheuser-Busch US vice-president marketing Jorn Socquet told AdAge, “and we [have] found with Budweiser such a beautiful angle to play on that sentiment.”

Voters in the US will go to the polls to vote for a new president on 8 November.