The World Cup runneth over - with Budweiser beer

by Nicole Weston, Posted Apr 23rd 2006 @ 12:01PM

Budweiser is official beer of World Cup, the most internationally watched sporting event in the world. They bought the rights for the 2002 and 2006 games for about $80 million in 1998 - before they knew where those games were to be hosted. The problem is that this year's World Cup is hosted by Germany and Germans don't like Budweiser.

For Germans, beer and football (soccer, for the Americans) go hand in hand and Germans are some of the biggest beer drinkers in the world - with many outstanding brews coming from their own country. The prospect of having to drink only Budweiser at the games was something of a slap in the face to German brewers. One fan, cited the Wall Street Journal, even said "This is just the worst beer you could imagine." Bad publicity poured from fans and the press. And to make matters worse, the beer had to be sold as "Anheuser Busch Bud" because of a legal battle over the Budweiser name rights with a Czech brewer that makes "Budweis" beer.

With the prospect of millions of potential beer drinkers, both in stadiums and at home, Budweiser knew they had to do something. Fast.

Budweiser is thought of as being too light for German tastes. In Germany, there are strict regulations, established centuries ago, that state beer must have only four ingredients: water, barley, yeast and hops. Budweiser also contains rice, as do some other American beers, resulting in a thinner body. The brands that have large international marketing campaigns, like Budweiser and Miller, are unpopular in Germany. But Bud wasn't going to let that stop them from reaping the benefits of their multi-million dollar investment.

They resolved their problem by approaching a popular German brewery, Bitburger, that makes a beer known as Bit - a name so similar to "Bud" that German courts ruled that beer could not bear that name during the games, either. In exchange for letting Budweiser sell their beer as "Bud" instead of "Anheuser Busch Bud," Bitburger beer will also be sold in the stadiums. Though the Budweiser will be branded, given out in logo-bearing plastic cups, Bit will not have its name publicized. But the Germans know that Bit is available and they are thrilled. A football fan, who had resigned himself to having to drink the too-light American brew, was told that Bit would be sold and said, "That's great. Now I will surely stick to the country and have a Bitburger."

Filed Under: Business, Newspapers, Drink Recipes
Tags: advertising, america, american, american beer, anheuser busch, beer, beers, bit, bitburger, brand, brew, brewery, bud, budweiser, controversy, europe, event, fans, football, german beer, germany, soccer, sport, sports, stadium, world cup