The Birth of a Beer Commercial

Have you ever wondered where one of those clever Bud Light commercials originates? Personally, I'm a lover of funny commercials, and it certainly improves my perception of the company being advertised. However, what seems like such a simple process is, in fact, quite complex and most great ideas never see the final production. Perhaps, the liquor and beer industry face the biggest hurdles during the creation of an advertisement or commercial. Here you'll see the steps an advertising agency must take in order to see the rewards in both their wallets and on the television screen.

Step One-Getting past the Code of Ethical Standards

According to the Anheuser Busch Advertising Gauntlet, this is the first step in getting an idea to materialize. A beer company has their own set of advertising agencies, as well as an in-house marketing department that makes all decisions for promotional materials. The agencies must create an idea that is within the limits of their own ethical standards, as well as that of the American Association of Advertising Agencies Creative Code.

This is also followed up by the Brewing Industry Code. This code was developed in the early 1930's and is primarily used to set standards and guidelines for advertisements. For instance, the advertisement must promote responsibility and discourage underage drinking. That's why you'll see the "Must be 21" tag lines on all advertisements, as well as the reminder to drink responsibly in lines such as "Don't let friends drive drunk."

Step Two-Getting past the internal marketing department.

This is where the hard work really has to come together. Advertising agencies must be their ideas onto storyboard and script form so that they can present it to the internal marketing departments at the big brewing companies. There must be great attention to detail, and the agencies must have the perfect use of imagery and text to describe the commercial. The bottom line is that if the internal marketing department cannot visualize the advertisement then they will not buy it. They need to know exactly what something is going to look like before they invest large sums of money into a project. Also, the marketing department is looking for other things such as how well it will appeal to the general public, whether or not it is in line with the target market, and how it reflects the company image. Though this is still the early stages, the advertisement must be well thought out and extremely entertaining.

Step Three-Getting Past the Consumer Awareness Board

This is just another board that reviews every advertisement and determines if it is done so in good taste and promotes responsibility. This board really represents the people of this country and is very critical about what the national public will see on television.

Step Four-Putting the ad in front of a focus group

Okay, so the entire advertising agency and internal marketing department thinks the ad is clever, but what does the general public think? After all, that is who's being targeted and if it fails in the general masses then the advertisement will be pulled and no more money will be invested into the project. An advertising agency will take the final polished product and present it to a focus group of all adult consumers. This is where most advertisement ideas are pulled and just a select few out of dozens of advertisement ideas make it past this point. The advertisement is still in storyboard form, and is reviewed by a steady dose of randomly selected audience members, as well as parents and adult beer drinkers. The focus group will offer its critique of the advertisement, as well as a general approval or disapproval. The internal marketing department of the brewing company will then take this feedback into consideration.

Step Five-Getting Past the Television Networks Standards Group

Assuming that the advertisement was approved and the marketing department gave the agency a green light, they must then present the material to the network so they can review its appropriateness and see if there any issues that make the network look bad.

Step Six-Developing the commercialOnce the process has been approved by the Television Network, then the advertising agency is free to begin production, if they haven't already done so, on the storyboard idea. The only audience left to approve of the advertisement is the general public and we all know that's the only opinion that matters