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BudweiserThis article is about a brand of beer brewed in the United States. Another, far older, brand of beer is also named Budweiser and is brewed in the Czech Republic; for that beer see Budweiser Budvar. Budweiser, usually simply called Bud and often marketed with the slogan This Bud's For You, is a best-selling brand of beer sold by Anheuser-Busch, the largest brewer in the United States. It was originally brewed in imitation of the famous Czech beer Budweiser, but over the decades has evolved its own style which has proved very commercially successful. It is an American lager brewed using mass production techniques. Like other American lagers, It is very lightly flavoured, and heavily carbonated, and probably the mildest-tasting beer of any of the internationally-popular lagers. Budweiser beer deteriorates quickly with age or excessive heat, so to ensure quality the company has fairly stringent requirements for handling and sale. There are numerous Budweiser breweries located around the United States (and the rest of the world), many of which offer tours with free samples. One thing tour guides will often do is when their group reaches the hospitality room is to ask a few volunteers to try what they refer to as "punished Budweiser." This is beer stored in a room for two weeks in a high temperature environment. The comparison between fresh Budweiser, and "punished" beer serves to demonstrate the beer's sensitivity to heat. The company is known for its sports sponsorships, video game sponsorship (Tapper), and (often) humorous advertisements. Advertising campaigns have included a nude Ganymede grasping a beer bottle and borne aloft by a bald eagle, frogs saying 'bud-wei-ser', lizards doing the same, and Clydesdale horses. Recently, Miller Brewing had begun a series of commercials in which "referees" were calling "penalties" on people drinking Bud Light, and the "referees" replaced the beer with Miller beer. Anheuser-Busch responded by making their own series of "referee" commercials that shows "referees" taking Bud Light for themselves. Anheuser-Busch is also known for its repeated legal attempts to obtain complete control of the Budweiser trademark, which have been generally unsuccessful.
Market shareAnheuser-Busch has a market share in the United States of about 50% for all of its brands of beer combined. Despite its wide commercial success in the United States, it has a very poor reputation with beer enthusiasts, both foreign and domestic, who typically object to its use of adjuncts, and to the taste of American lagers in general. In spite of that reputation, the company's 2004 annual report cites figures which demonstrate Budweiser brands are proving to be quite successful in three markets outside of the U.S.:
Budweiser is also widely available in Mexico due to Anheuser-Busch's half-ownership of Grupo Modelo, through which Budweiser (and Bud Light) are distributed. In Ireland, Budweiser is the largest off-premise beer; it is brewed, marketed, and sold by Guinness. Budweiser is also available in Italy and Argentina because of partnerships Anheuser-Busch has with major brewers there. The nameWith globalization of brands, the existence of the Czech beer of the same name has caused problems in some markets. In some European nations where the Czech brand has legal rights to the name "Budweiser", the Anheuser-Busch product is marketed as "Bud". Anheuser-Busch has made offers to buy out the Czech brewing company in order to secure global rights to the name "Budweiser", but the Czech company has refused all such offers, considering keeping the Budweiser name Czech to be a matter of national pride. See also
External links
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