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To my surprise, the Super-Bowl-commercial-inspired publicity campaign to name Budweiser's newest clydesdale ended with St. Louis coming away empty-handed: The internet selected—instead of "Stan," after Busch's ancestral home's recently departed hero—a name so bland and focus-grouped that I really do believe a group of Twitter-voters chose it: Hope.
Watch the Budweiser clydesdale ad
Watch the Super Bowl commercial, featuring "Hope" the boringly named clydesdale.
Hope. Luckily (if you're an InBev shareholder) someone in the marketing department managed to stave off catastrophe. They went into the back and spoke to their manager, and—well, they're normally not allowed to do this, but they really want your business, so—it looks like there was another baby clydesdale banging around in the back room. They can get you on a nice monthly payment for it, if you'll just have a seat over there—
Give a warm welcome to our two little#Clydesdales foals. Thanks for all your name ideas — we couldn't pick just one. twitter.com/Budweiser/stat…
— Budweiser (@Budweiser) February 5, 2013
Hope and Stan: Two adorable baby clydesdales for maximum public-relations coverage. Everybody wins! Except for "Hope," who's totally going to get made fun of in clydesdale middle-school. This should placate St. Louis for the moment, though eventually I think Busch is going to have to answer for setting their commercial in Chicago, of all places.