You were hardly alone, as the quartet of buddies at the center of this rabidly popular Budweiser campaign plopped themselves down on the comfy couch of the public consciousness and refused to budge. What started out as an innocent little phone exchange between four friends who greet each other with a protracted Wassup! quickly snowballed into a global pop culture phenomenon, spawning one of the most awarded campaigns in advertising history (snagging the Cannes Grand Prix and a Clio along the way), countless parodies and untold repetitions of the W-word in everyday life. You know who you are.

"The campaign began during football season, so we thought it might become popular with an avid sports crowd," says DDB/Chicago group creative director Don Pogany, who had no idea it would take off everywhere.

"I was surprised by all the internet parodies and the fact that it was globally popular,: says creative director Vinny Warren. "It just went nuts! I think people liked it because it was physically cathartic to say the phrase"a little bit of nervous energy left your body when you said it. It was just magically irresistible on some level. And wassup is American for hello, so everyone had lots of excuses to say it in a day."