Bud Light offers ‘summer stimmy’ to help kickstart post-pandemic life

Whether you’ve already spent your $1,400 stimulus check or stashed it away in your savings account, Bud Light is offering Americans a helping hand to get their year back on track, giving away millions of dollars worth of experiential prizes to consumers as part of a new campaign dubbed the “Bud Light Summer Stimmy.” The brainchild of creative shop 3PM, owned by Weber Shandwick, the Anheuser-Busch InBev brand’s new initiative has a straightforward goal: “To bring back some much-needed fun and be sure everyone across America has the best summer ever,” the company says. To accomplish this feat, Bud Light is offering consumers 21 and older a litany of prizes—collectively worth up to $10 million—that signal a return to normalcy as the COVID-19 pandemic wanes in the U.S. Up for grabs as part of the “summer stimmy” are 100,000 complimentary tickets to sporting events across six pro leagues and more than 70 teams, free concert tickets at amphitheaters nationwide, and on-the-house first rounds of drinks once people are ready to return to bars. “Bud Light knows people across America are eager to get back out there in a big way, and we wanted to serve up an offering that would help everyone have an epic summer,” says Andy Goeler, Bud Light’s VP of marketing. “As one of the leading beer brands in the industry, we feel it’s our obligation to welcome consumers back to the places they enjoy Bud Light—their favorite bars, sporting events and live music venues—when it's safe.” Of course, there are business reasons behiond it. Beer brands rely heavily on sales at bars, restaraunts, sporting events and festivals—so they have a vested interest in anything that generates a sense of normalcy. Several brands have hopped on that bandwagon in recent weeks, including Bud Light sibling brand Budweiser, which is offering a free beer to those who provide proof of vaccination, and Miller Lite, which is selling novelty “vax tees” that come with one sleeve removed. Bud Light’s effort is notable because of its size, and the lenghts it is going to publicize it. To get the word out, Bud tapped “Veep” actor Sam Richardson to star in its flagship ad about the giveaway. Styled as a faux political pitch on the fictitious B-Span network, Richardson, who has been dubbed the “Appointed Bud Light Summer Stimmy Reader,” is shown reading through more than 100 pages of the brand’s own stimulus proposal to a less-than-engaged bar. Professional football player Rob Gronkowski, a.k.a. the “Bud Light Secretary of Summer,” also has a hand in the campaign as a spokesman tasked with everything from encouraging summer fun to making May 14, his birthday, National Gronk Day. Make no mistake, the “Bud Light Summer Stimmy” contains plenty of nonsense—outlawing jorts, proposing Mt. Rushmore be turned into a waterpark, and offering a free T-shirt to every St. Louis resident named Louis or Louise—but it contains plenty of legit giveaway details, too. More information can be found on the initiative’s dedicated webpage, where Americans can sign up to formally “endorse” the so-called stimmy.

Bud Light offers ‘summer stimmy’ to help kickstart post-pandemic life

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