Budweiser Clydesdales Being Ditched For Craft Beer Hipsters

The iconic and beautiful Budweiser Clydesdales are being given the proverbial boot – or hoof – as it may be, and the horses won’t be seen for this year’s holiday advertising campaign. Yes, the powerful horses that have been used in Budweiser’s commercials since back in 1987 aren’t going to be there anymore because the company is targeting a younger audience who likes craft beers more.

According to US News, Budweiser is going to place their advertising focus and their marketing money on garnering the attention of a younger crowd.

For over two decades, the beautiful animals have brought attention to Budweiser in their commercials for the holidays and the Super Bowl. They’ve kicked footballs, played in the snow, and even made friends with some smaller animals such as dogs and cats.

Now, Budweiser is looking to focus on younger crowds as they’ve found out some disturbing statistics.

According to a recent survey, about 44 percent of drinkers in the age range of 21 to 27-years-old have never even tried Budweiser. While it’s true that most bars don’t just carry Bud, Coors, Miller, and Heineken anymore; one would think that bar-goers would still have tried a Budweiser somewhere along the way somehow.

The Wall Street Journal even states that some bars aren’t even going to carry Budweiser on tap anymore because the survey statistics are true.

Jessica Dewey owns Jake’s Billiards in Greensboro, N.C., will be taking Budweiser off of tap because customers don’t want it anymore. They are leaning more toward craft beers and even out of 69 taps, they still aren’t looking to go old school.

Back for Halloween, Jake’s did carry Budweiser on tap when there was a promotion that saw the beer turned red for “Bloodweiser.” Still, that didn’t help sales much.

Dewey says that during a regular week, she sells maybe 20 cases of Bud bottles and nothing more than that. While those aren’t bad sales, the beer is being sold “mostly to older gentleman and country kids” and not the college crowd as their “clientele likes the craft beers.”

While younger drinkers these days aren’t attached to Budweiser, they aren’t the reason that sales have steadily declined for 25 years.

For the new commercials from Budweiser, the Clydesdales have been replaced rapper Jay Z and zombies.

Oh, there are also the new commercials featuring some millennials who are making things a bit more serious. They look longingly into the camera and ask, “If you could grab a Bud with any of your friends these holidays, who would it be?”

[Image via Wall Street Journal]