Bob Lachky and Budweiser's Real Men of Genius

Anheuser-Busch's Creative Director Leaves a Rich Advertising Legacy

Feb 18, 2009

Bob Lachky headed one of America's most honored ad teams. It created beauty with the Budweiser Clydesdales at Christmas and million-dollar humor for the Super Bowl.

With Lachky as chief creative officer, Anheuser-Busch (A-H) sponsored two decades of memorable commercials built around the Budweiser Clydsdales, their Dalmation friend and such characters and themes as:

Lachky's commercials often dominated the Super Bowl telecasts and frequently won acclaim from the game’s viewers.

A Bud Man

The former Chicago ad agency executive retired from A-H in February 2009 at age 55, saying it was just time to move on to some other challenge and opportunity, but not with another brewery.

He told the media that his retirement had nothing to do with the Anheuser takeover by InBev of Belgium a few months earlier.

Lachky's fame was not that he personally wrote or produced Budweiser's string of successful commercials. He had other people and agencies to do that. His strength was that he recognized their worth and gave them their wings, sometimes at his own risk.

At his retirement, Lachky acknowledged that some of "the zany ideas" coming out of his department drew the ire of A-H management.

2004 Super Bowl Commercials

The Wall Street Journal recalled, for instance, that A-H was heavily criticized for a pair of 2004 Super Bowl commercials that some people, to put it mildly, considered raunchy and which prompted Budweiser's president to promise they would be more careful in the future. However, at least one spot designed for the 2009 Super Bowl game was not run because it featured a young man trying to purchase a risque magazine just as a former girlfriend walks into the same store. Some racy spots are limited to YouTube.

"I was fired more times than Billy Martin," Lachky said, referring to the former baseball manager.

On the other hand, Budweiser's Clydesdale commercials were praised for their beauty and class, especially the one that paid tribute to the 9/11 victims. It was shown only once, at the 2002 Super Bowl, to avoid the perception that Anheuser was tryng to profit from the disaster.

Matt Miller, CEO of the Association of Independent Commercial Producers, said Lachky deserved a lot of credit for Budweiser’s "ground-breaking work" on the Super Bowl telecasts.

Male Beer Drinkers

Tony Ponturo who handled Budweiser’s sports marketing, called Lachky "a creative genius" with a special talent for communicating with 21-to-27 year old male beer drinkers.

Jeremy Mullman of AdAge called Lachky "one of the best-liked and most-respected marketing executives in not just beer but virtually all of consumer-product marketing."

He added that Lachky "helped to create some of the most memorable and iconic ad campaigns of the past two decades, including "Wassup?!," the Budweiser frogs and the "Real Men of Genius," the most-awarded radio campaign in history,"

Millions from Stock Options

Suzanne Vranica of the Wall Street Journal said Anheuser-Busch spends about $500 million per year on advertising time and space in the United States.

The Journal also reported that Lachky could "earn $19.5 million from the exercise of his stock options and the sales of restricted stock" in the deal with InBev.

Lachky used the Omnicom Group’s DDB as his lead agency from 1994 until his retirement.

The copyright of the article Bob Lachky and Budweiser's Real Men of Genius in Advertising is owned by Carroll Trosclair. Permission to republish Bob Lachky and Budweiser's Real Men of Genius in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.