Busch Light Super Bowl commercial: The mountains do not sing, no matter what Kenny G makes you think

With every Super Bowl comes the opportunity for beer companies to tout their products in front of millions of potential customers. Of course, you can’t actually be seen drinking one in the ad but the allure of this type of marketing chance doesn’t get wasted often. Busch Light decided to swing for the fences by grabbing Kenny G for its commercial. Here’s the ad.

Busch Light Super Bowl LVI commercial

The Kenny G solo is impressive and flawless. No complaints there. The problem with this commercial isn’t really the execution but rather the messaging behind the product.

The identity of Busch Light is in no way synonymous with “the mountains singing”. Busch Light doesn’t have the name recognition of Bud Light, Coors, Miller or Corona (wonder what their financials look like). It doesn’t have the quirks of Dos Equis or Stella Artois branding. It doesn’t quite hit the college allure of Natural Light and Keystone. So what in the world are these people talking about when they conclude this commercial with “head for the mountains of Busch Light”?

This beer, for me, has always been associated with “I didn’t want to fork up the extra dough for Bud Light or Corona, but didn’t also want to stoop down to the Natty Light/Keystone level” and hence ended up with Busch Light. There’s nothing wrong with watching your wallet when it comes to buying alcohol. And on a similar level, there’s nothing wrong with being an anonymous beer.

A better representation of this beer would’ve been a person of appropriate age saying this is his or her drink of choice at a party, with a flash cut to a mid-tier celebrity who was that previous person at the party. I’ll let the marketing people come up with a snazzy tag line. Instead we get false advertising in front of millions, the vast majority of whom are never going to drink a Busch Light in their lifetime.