Anheuser-Busch could learn a thing or two from P&G.

There’s a new Bud Light commercial featuring a TV news team about to begin a broadcast. This spot is entirely obvious in its “humor,” but that’s not my gripe. Instead, it’s this: As they’re about to go on the air, the anchorman eyeballs someone off camera pouring a Bud Light, and says, “Man, that looks refreshing.” This line sets the table for the ensuing laff riot. But I don’t care about any of that. I’m stuck back where the guy actually says the word “refreshing” as he ogles the beer. Really? Refreshing? Whatz!?

If the line was delivered with irony, or the guy was supposed to be a one-dimensional geek who talked like that, okay. But neither possible justification applies. The only reason he says “refreshing” is that this word is apparently the official descriptor for Bud Light these days.
Coming out of the mouth of an announcer, the word, though artificial, stiff and worn flat by its
overuse in beer commercials for so many decades, would at least be in character. An announcer, after all, is supposed to spew the product blah blah, largely so that the characters in the spot aren’t burdened with that chore, so their dialogue can rise above such banality and aspire to being something approaching real, natural or at least not straight from the brief.

“Refreshing” is the kind of word you would expect to come out of the mouth of a P&G mom in the ‘70s. Perhaps this once celebrated brand should go back to fart jokes and leave funny dialogue to the guys who used to write Bud Light spots back when they were funny. Oh wait. They’ve all retired or are writing sitcoms.