Chicago's "L" says it all. Budweiser is a beer and pretty much a crummy one. De Gustibus Non Est Disputandum. Bud never did anything for me, but the "L" was a huge part of my life.
I rode the "L" every day from 1967-1975 as a student and to and from my many jobs. I got on the 63rd Street "L" at Loomis from 1967 -1971 and then at Ashland and rode it to Loyola University's Lewis Towers and Lake Shore campi.
Budweiser was consumed by many folks, but always made me gag. Hamm's, Schlitz, Meister Brau, Blatz, Drewery's, Old Style, Buckhorn, Grain Belt, Stroh's, Rhinelander, Pabst, Point, Leinenkugel's, Huber, and even Olympia beers went down with ease. Budwesier and Miller offerings, it seemed to me, would gag a maggot. Clysdale's and Winter Jingle Bell ads notwithstanding, I never understood the mass appeal of Budweiser.
However, the ad agency that fused the St. Louis Beer Giant's soapy product and Chicago's singular cultural icon - featured in Bellow, Farrell, Algren, Dreiser, and Fuller novels, Chicago Blues numbers and in every movie with a Chicago location, - the "L" - into a sharp and compelling visual and added a cover of a particularly flabby Beatles number. It all somehow works.
Click my post title for You Tube Link!
H/T to Max Weismann of Center for the Study of Great Ideas.
