You know the feeling: It’s been a long, stressful day. You just finished a big project at work, or finally got done with something you’ve long been building toward. Good or bad, job well done or job well, kinda messed up, it’s over with. There’s only one place left to go now, and that’s to meet the friends and crack a cold one.
Academy Award nominee David Fincher produced a 90-second Super Bowl commercial for Anheuser-Busch (the company’s first ever for the big game) capturing this exact feeling, showing musicians, culinary workers, corporate employees, and everyone in between finding their ways to wind down after a big moment with a beer. But it also shows the way that a beer can be a natural uniter—one scene shows one friend signaling to another at a funeral. Another shows a couple staring at the empty seats of their rained out wedding. It sucks, but cracking that beer can help to crack a smile in even some of the shittiest moments.
Fincher re-teamed with half of his Gone Girl, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and The Social Network musical team (Atticus Ross) for an original composition that just makes the whole thing feel really cool—and makes us all miss these little moments that we never really realized we’d be missing.
The ad, which leads a new Anheuser-Busch campaign called “Let’s Grab a Beer”makes us feel things most of us aren’t currently feeling. The feeling of meeting a friend after a long day and cracking that can. Of popping that bottlecap off. Of cheers-ing your drink and actually clanging glass together, rather than just holding it up to a dot on your laptop screen.
But as the ad astutely points out as it closes out, “It’s never just about the beer. It’s about being together.” Which puts it pretty simply. Sure a little buzz from a brewski doesn’t hurt, but what really helps reduce that stress at the end of the day is shooting the shit with your friend and knowing that you’ve got the hard part out of the way. And Fincher and the Anheuser-Busch team capture that perfectly here.
Fincher, who will likely be nominated for an Oscar in the coming months for his work on Netflix’s Mank, has experience with short form. While most know him as one of the best film directors alive, he started his career directing music videos and commercials.
He’s also not the only acclaimed filmmaker getting involved in ads for this year’s Super Bowl; La La Land and Whiplash director Damien Chazelle was behind the camera for a Squarespace ad featuring Dolly Parton which will also air during Super Bowl LV.
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