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Anheuser-Busch Brings Holiday Cheer to BeerAnheuser-Busch Brings Holiday Cheer to Beer
This year’s Budweiser holiday can celebrates the season with a wintry, dog-and-Clydesdale packaging design.
2 Min Read
Budweiser
At a Glance
- Graphics on the holiday beer packaging deliver old-time charm.
- The holiday can appears in a TV commercial, signaling a return to form for the brand owner.
Anheuser-Busch is making merry this winter with a Budweiser holiday can that is both festive and nostalgic.
Graphics on the limited-edition packaging feature the Budweiser Clydesdale horses and Labrador dog traveling through the snow to deliver beer, evoking the brand’s highly successful TV commercial for the 2024 Super Bowl. Budweiser created a holiday version of that commercial in tandem with the holiday cans.
Unlike the Super Bowl commercial, the holiday ad incorporates a can of Budweiser, showcasing the holiday can beside a glass of draft. No cans appeared in the Super Bowl version of the ad, as our own Lisa McTigue Pierce remarked on at the time.
The holiday graphics on the brand’s 12-ounce cans also appear on paperboard carriers for 15-, 24-, 30-, and 36-can packs of Budweiser. The holiday packs, which rolled out on November 18, will be available through January, at all retail locations where the brand is sold.
A quick-response (QR) code for entering Budweiser’s 2024 holiday sweepstakes is printed on the back of the holiday cans. Consumers age 21 or older may scan the code for the chance to win a VIP tour of Anheuser-Busch’s St. Louis brewery in 2025. The tour will include “vintage-inspired” prizes and meeting the Clydesdales.
The holiday cans are part of a tradition for Budweiser. “The first official holiday-themed cans debuted in 2019, drawing inspiration from the iconic holiday steins, which have been a hallmark of the brand since the 1970s,” says Kristina Punwani, head of marketing, Budweiser.
“The holiday steins have remained a focal point of Budweiser’s annual holiday tradition for decades, and limited-edition primary packaging is a more recent addition,” she says.
Budweiser’s limited-edition holiday packaging design extends to can multipacks. Budweiser
The 2024 holiday season marks a return for Budweiser’s limited-time holiday can after a short absence. Anheuser-Busch did not produce one last year, during its recovery from an earlier promotional-packaging debacle.
The problematic promotion occurred in Spring 2023, when the company put the image of transgender influencer Dylan Mulvaney on Bud Light cans. Consumer backlash ensued, leading to a Bud Light boycott and billions in lost market cap.
With the passage of time, the hubbub has died down and the company’s sales have bounced back, paving the way for the current holiday can at retail, in consumers’ hands, and on TV.
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