The Story Of Adolphus Busch, The Creator Of Budweiser, Was The Best Commercial

It just would not be Super Bowl Sunday without all of those commercials that give fans a chance to grab a snack from the refrigerator or have a drink. Some even discuss the game while those commercials air. It is definitely worthwhile to take a close look at the Super Bowl commercials, for they are the best that are broadcasted on television. They do come at a hefty price tag though, which totals $5 million for 30 seconds of airtime. Most Super Bowl commercials are humorous and satirical. Some commercials introduce new products that come to the market. While other use unique ways to advertise the goods that we already love.

Of all the Super Bowl commercials, there was one that stood out from all of the rest because it had a dramatic tone and was based on the true story of one of the co-founders of the Anheuser-Busch company, Adolphus Busch. In this commercial, a young Adolphus Busch takes a ship to immigrate to America, and the sea is stormy. When Busch arrives in America, you hear people saying to him, “go back home.” However, Busch stays in America despite the anti-immigrant sentiment that was prevalent in the promise land. At the end of the commercial, Busch sketches a bottle in a log. In a German accent, he tells Anheuser about the beer that he wants to create. As the two men shake hands, a business empire is born the company, Anheuser-Busch.

Adolphus Busch, who co-founded the Anheuser-Busch company with Eberhand Anheuser, was born in Germany on July 10, 1839. Adolphus, who was the youngest of 21 children, learned about the brewery business from his father, Ulrich Busch, who was an affluent salesman in the business of wines and brewer’s supplies.

In order to pursue his dream of starting a brewery, Busch immigrated to America from Germany in 1857 and lived in St. Louis, Missouri, where he started his own brewer’s supply company using his inheritance. In 1864, Busch co-founded a brewing business with Eberhard Anheuser called, Anheuser and Busch. Before starting their company, Busch, who married, Lily Anheuser, Anheuser’s daughter, was already a part of Anheuser’s family.

Busch and Anheuser worked very well together and expanded their growing company. The Anheuser and Busch Company opened a chain of breweries from 1946 to 1975. The first brewery opened in Newark, New Jersey in 1951, followed by eight other breweries. In 1879, Anheuser and Busch Company beat all of their competitors by selling more than one million barrels of beer a year.

Today Busch and Anheuser Company has joined the list of businesses that are concerned about preserving the environment. They have reduced consumption of water by 50 percent in order to keep their promise to conserve water. They also make their beer from the best raw materials right from their hop farms. In order to protect young people, they have also started a campaign of $1 billion to prevent underage drinking and driving. Anheuser Busch also sponsors several sports events, and there are NASCAR cars decorated with the Budweiser logo as well as with other beers that they produce such as Coors Light, Busch Light and Miller Lite.

Busch was not only a clever businessman, but he also had the mind of an innovator. Busch came up with a method of pasteurizing beer, so that it could have a longer shelf life. He also worked with Carl Conrad, a St. Louis restaurant owner, to create a light beer called Budweiser. Ever since 1951, Budweiser was a top selling beer in the United States and still holds the same record today.

When Busch died on October 10, 1913, he left a legacy to his family and to the United States. Budweiser, the beer that he created, still continues to make our country prosperous today. The Super Bowl commercial, that briefly detailed the life Adolphus Busch, teaches us that some immigrants come to America to work really hard. When they turn their American dream into reality, they open the door for others.

[Featured Image by Scott Olson/Getty Images]