Once upon a time in 1999, Anheuser-Busch bought the rights to use a crazy little idea by Charles Stone III for $37,000. The resulting commercial showcased the male bonding between four "buddies" (Stone and his real life friends) sharing friendship and of course their favourite beer- Budweiser. The commercial rated as Superbowl 2000's most popular went on to win numerous advertising awards.
That success resulted in a series of ads and a series of parodies and sold a ton of Bud. The meme heard round the world! WHASSUP! Frankly, I had hoped I'd never hear it again.
But the boys are back and it's not to sell Bud- but Obama. WASSUP 2008 appeared on YouTube last Friday and has already been seen by 3.7 million viewers.
"Its been eight long years since the boys said whassup to each other. Even with the effects of a down economy and imminent change in the White House, the boys are still able to come together and stay true to what really matters"
Anheuser-Busch and its ad firm Omnicom can't do much to stop the parody because they only purchased the rights to the idea for 5 years. And lawyers say that if if Anheuser-Busch owned the copyright, First Amendment rights might favor the creator's right to parody.
It's likely that Anheuser-Busch supports McCain, but let's face it, it's hard to forget the connection to Budweiser.
The video ends with one more, "Whassup?"
"Change. Change, that's whassup" says another character as he watches TV images of Sen. Obama and his wife.
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