Budweiser

I was at the Old Town bar on East 18th Street on Thursday evening, when a petite woman with a French accent leaned across the bar to my right and demanded from the bartender: "Two Budweisers for Belgian people!"

She laughed. Her and her friends were tourists from Belgium.

The bartender grinned wryly and said, "It's not very good beer."

Indeed. But that didn't stop InBev from buying Anheuser-Busch for $52 billion earlier this week in history's biggest all-cash deal. America's largest brewer, which the Busch family ran for 150 years, will now be in the hands of a company run by Brazilians and controlled by a few Belgian aristocracts.  read more »

MONDAY

The three Americans who were freed recently from a leftist guerilla organization in the jungles of Colombia traveled home to Florida for the first time in more than five years on Saturday after undergoing 10 days of treatment in an Army medical center in Houston. Their highly publicized rescue by the Colombian military on July 2 served as a reminder that the large South American nation still has lots of problems, like political strife, a slowing economy, poverty, crime and drugs. (Did you see that VBS.tv documentary on Colombian scopolamine? Scary!) But tonight, Anthony Bourdain focuses on the brighter side of Colombian culture in the latest installment of No Reservations.  read more »

As we mentioned in the Week in Music on Tuesday, Brooklyn’s very own outrageously-dressed, genre-bending singer/rapper/popstress Santogold, who’s written tracks for Ashlee Simpson and used to be in a Philly punk band, just collaborated on a new track with producer Pharrell Williams and Strokes singer Julian Casablancas as part of the centennial promo campaign for Converse sneakers. And surely you’ve seen that ubiquitous commercial for Bud Light Lime featuring her hyped up and spastic debut single, “Creator.” (Opening lyric: “Got no need for the fancy things.” Hence: drinking Budweiser!) But the indie rock product placement doesn’t stop there. Stereogum reports that Santogold has lent a remix of her other popular tune, “L.E.S. Artistes,” to Ford in a new auto spot for the Ford Flex. “Santi's wasting no time,” the blog notes. “You know why? Because selling records doesn't make money, and licensing does.” Touche! But what does Santogold have to say about all this? Well, she told New York mag:  read more »

Here in the U.S., Budweiser commercials tend to conjure images of sweaty dudes and babes throwing back a few cold ones under the sun or, more recently, of some red-blooded Bud spokesman explaining the science behind the King of Beer’s “unique seven-step brewing process” to thirsty patrons in a sports bar. But The Great American Lager had something else in mind for selling its brand across the pond. That something was Harmony Korine. Yes, the writer and director behind such WTF?!-inspiring indie classics as Kids, Gummo and Julien Donkey-Boy has directed two new U.K. spots intended to “refresh Budweiser's image for the British market.” The roughly minute-long ads feature “a group of Nashville musicians jamming with beer bottles and kegs as instruments.” The second one begins with an older, Western-clad gent proclaiming in a thick southern drawl, “Your people love you. Your audience loves you. LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARRRRTEEEED!” (U.S.A.!) Now if that doesn’t sell some beer, we don’t know what will.