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Budweiser's Clydesdales are going to be in the Super Bowl after all—for all of five seconds. The brew plans to run the so-called bumper ad in the second quarter to promote its "Clydesdales Cam," which will show the horses in real-time on Bud's Facebook page, according to a spokesman.
The move apparently represents a change in course. Anheuser-Busch InBev executives late last week said the Clydesdales would sit out the game on TV and only be featured online.
The digital strategy includes a 60-second digital spot released Tuesday that shows a Clydesdale galloping by places including the Grand Canyon and the Gateway Arch in Bud's St. Louis hometown. Most of Bud's TV time—60 seconds—will be dedicated to a spot by David that plugs the brewer's canned water disaster relief program.
The five-second spot technically extends the Clydesdales Super Bowl TV streak to 18 years. Indeed, they will actually get more air time than last year, when they made a blink-and-you'll-miss-it appearance in a spot that told the story of how German immigrant Adolphus Busch founded the company.
In a reader poll Ad Age published Tuesday that drew 1,300 votes, 69% of respondents favored the 60-second Clydesdales ad over the canned water spot.