Good one, Budweiser

So, Super Bowl 50 was this past Sunday. I think everyone got the memo except for poor Cam Newton and the Panthers. Personally, I was super excited! I’ve been waiting to cheer on Atlanta native, Cam Newton in the Super Bowl since his Auburn days and as a marketing/advertising junky, Super Bowl commercials are kind of like Christmas presents for me. Oh and one other thing....Beyoncé! In my opinion, although the halftime show was phenomenal, the game was pretty boring and the commercials weren’t all of that, however something did stick out to me. That something would be Peyton Manning’s post game interview. In the interview, Manning discussed his celebratory plans, which included spending time with his family and drinking a lot of Budweiser. When Peyton Manning made this announcement, Twitter blew up (well at least my timeline did) with estimations of how much he was paid for the two-second mention of Budweiser. I mean it is kind of ironic to mention a specific brand name during an interview that 111.9 million are watching, right? Representatives from Anheuser Busch quickly took to twitter to clear up speculations that Manning was paid for the announcement. Lisa Weser, leader of marketing communications tweeted, “Hi internet. For the record, Budweiser did not pay Peyton Manning to mention Budweiser tonight. We were surprised and delighted that he did.” I guess Budweiser just got lucky. Thanks Lisa, but a lot of people weren’t buying it. Either way, whether Payton Manning was paid or not, Budweiser is now more desired than ever. Peyton Manning drinks Budweiser, so it must make you a champion! I'm curious to see how much Budweiser sales increase over the next couple of weeks and how the company uses this unexpected, but much appreciated promotion to its advantage.