BudTV

Yes, they finally launched and once you make it past the velvet ropes in the form of a strict age verification process, you’ll reach the promised land of broadband television, ca. 2007. Looks like AB did everything right here, BudTV will quickly represent a new quality standard for any type of original content on the web, whether it’s sponsored, ad supported or re-purposed.

Lorne Manly explores this new phenomenon at great length in this in-depth NY Times Magazine article:

“Bud.TV may be a marketing venture at heart, but it is marketing sotto voce. The shows’ plots won’t revolve around the quest for the perfect beer and a beautiful woman to share it with. Characters won’t declaim the virtues of Budweiser’s freshness at every opportunity. The site won’t be cluttered with banner ads. Anheuser-Busch executives are banking on a more subtle connection. Attach a brand name to something cool, something entertaining, and that elusive young man (and to a lesser extent, young woman) may check out Bud.TV’s offerings again and again, send them along to friends, even take a stab at creating his own minifilm for the site. Cultivate that warm, fuzzy feeling about Budweiser, and the company may cement the loyalty of the existing customer, or better, woo the uncommitted or hard-to-reach drinker to a Bud Light or a Michelob or a Peels malt-liquor beverage.”