And the Emmy goes to...something that has never appeared on TV.
The Academy of Television Arts and Sciences awarded Bud Light's "Swear Jar," from DDB, Chicago and director David Shane, the Emmy for Outstanding Commercial.
The spot shows a descent into bleepy vulgarity after an office implements a swear jar, with the intention to use all profits to buy beer. It only ran on the Internet, originally promoting Anheuser-Busch's Bud.TV, which was launched in February 2007 but quickly turned into the Pets.com of branded content destinations. By April, due to complicated age verification processes, hit-or-miss creative and usability flaws, site traffic had dropped below measurement service comScore's minimum and Anheuser-Busch representatives resigned the site to a quiet exit.
None of that stopped "Swear Jar," though, which quickly escaped Bud.tv's gilded cage and garnered over 3 million views on YouTube and, according to the agency, over 12 million around the web.