THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!

Special Project

Special Project
From the 14th Annual Shorty Awards

Bud Light Seltzer: Last Year's Lemons

Entered in Medium-Length Video

Objectives

In early 2021, Bud Light Seltzer expanded its product line-up to include Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade, bringing fans the bold taste of lemonade with the refreshing bubbliness of seltzer.

To help launch the new beverage, Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade released its first-ever Super Bowl ad… by making lemonade out of 2020’s lemons. Inspired by some of the more inconvenient situations of 2020, “Last Year’s Lemons” showed the bright moments in a challenging year, turning last year’s lemons into Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade.

During the Super Bowl, Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade also encouraged fans to turn a lemon of a play into Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade. When there was a turnover by either team, fans watching the Super Bowl could enter for a chance to win a case worth of Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade, by tweeting with #LemonsIntoLemonade and #Sweepstakes.

Strategy and Execution

When Bud Light launched its new Seltzer Lemonade in 2021, the brand knew it had a unique opportunity to reflect what people had been going through in a light-hearted way, using the common proverb “when life gives you lemons…”

With "Last Year’s Lemons,” we wanted to use this adage to introduce our new Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade in a timely, relatable and lighthearted way. Inspired by the do-it-yourself haircuts, postponed weddings and other inconvenient situations of 2020, “Last Year’s Lemons” showed the bright moments in a challenging year, turning last year’s lemons into Bud Light Seltzer Lemonade.

The Super Bowl always brings together avid and casual sports fans alike, and our hope was that our super bowl ad would bring them a little bit of levity and fun while watching the game.

Results

Last Year’s Lemons landed coverage garnering 1,739 Stories and more than 1.2B+ Impressions. It was also hailed as a “Top 5 Super Bowl Ad” across many consumer-facing publications, including by USA Today’s AdMeter.

Media

Video for Bud Light Seltzer: Last Year's Lemons

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Wieden+Kennedy New York, Bud Light