TYPES of CRISES

We have recently been taught that a crisis can fall into six different categories.
-Unusual weather patterns and natural disasters
-Terrorism
-Reliance of the internet
-Human-induced crisis
-Sustainability and environmental damage
-Globalization and outsourcing
Anheuser-Busch can suffer from crises that fall into all six of these categories. Now, because of the type of company that Anheuser-Busch is, some types of crises could arise more than others.
Even though reliance of the internet is becoming so evident with businesses, Anheuser-Busch does not have to worry about the internet. Will they have to develop their website more? Yes, they already have, it is very browser friendly and visually appealing. Will they have to produce more advertisements for the internet? Yes, the internet has such a huge market for advertising. People are becoming so dependent on the internet that they may not even watch television or read a newspaper for their news or for pleasure. But, Anheuser-Busch’s products have such a good reputation. They are the biggest brewer of beer in the United States. Between commercials, sponsorships, word of mouth and overall quality, Anheuser-Busch products will be on top for a long time to come. The internet can only help Anheuser-Busch.
Anheuser-Busch has to worry about human-induced crises. Between its brewers, distribution workers, consumers or advertising/PR/marketing people there are numerous problems that a human can create. Whether the employee is disgruntled, a consumer over-uses a product or a marketing person creates a bad ad, there is always something that can go wrong.
For example, in 1991 a man sued Anheuser-Busch for false advertising. The man claimed that a Budweiser ad caused him to have emotional distress, mental injury and financial loss. Unlike the ads, the man said that when he drank Budweiser, women weren’t automatically attracted to him. He also claimed that beautiful women and tropical settings did not appear out of thin air…like the ads at the time displayed. Ridiculous…I know. Even though that did not lead to a crisis you can see the types of problems that Anheuser-Busch is faced every day. Though no money was lost, time was wasted because someone had to deal with these absurd claims that the gentleman was making.

ADVERTISING CRISIS

As I said in my last post, advertising is HUGE for Anheuser-Busch. During the Super Bowl alone, five or six new Budweiser/Bud Light commericials were aired. Here are a couple of my favorites: The Book Club and T-Pain.
Now, as you can see there is nothing over-the-top in those commercials, just good fun. To my surprise, the power of the female body was not used in any of the commercials that were aired during the Super Bowl.
I began to research old Anheuser-Busch ad's to see if any crisis had ever emerged from an advertising mistake.
In 2006, Anheuser-Busch was set to launch a new ad featuring the music of a band The Standells', which was recorded over 40 years-ago. The problem was that Anheuser-Busch only paid the record comapany for the use of "Dirty Water", the song in question. The Standells' were never in line to see any money of the work they put in while recording the song. The Standells' sued Anheuser-Busch for 1 million dollars.
Anheuser-Busch was faced with a bit of a problem. Not only were they being sued for a million dollars, they had just produced a commercial that they are not going to be able to use....an incredible amount of time/money was wasted. At the other end, I wouldn't be surprisd if Anheuser-Busch wasn't that upset over the loss of the commercial considering it is an advertising giant. I am sure there are teams of advertising guro's that could whip up a successful ad in a short period of time.

CRISIS MANAGEMENT AT ANHEUSER-BUSCH

Well....after a lot of thought, I have decided to switch companies from ATO Records to Anheuser-Busch. Though ATO Records is a very successful record company, I have realized that it would simply be easier to work with a client who was more prevelant in the news. Anheuser-Busch is one of, if not the "premier brewery" in the United States.
That being said, Anheuser-Busch is susceptible to crisis.
The Super Bowl is less than five days away and even if you dont like sports you are more then likely going to be watching on Sunday. If not for the game but for the commercials.
Beer commercials make up a huge chunk of those commercials...and what sells beer??? Beautiful women who are half-naked. Now, for a young adult like myself I do not take offense to those commercials, I happen to enjoy them but if I were a parent or someone who finds half-naked women vulgar then I would take offense to that.
So how does Anheuser-Busch decide if their commercials have gone too far?? How do they know where to stop?? Obviously they dont want a law-suit on their hands for vulgar material but at the same time they are going to do all they can to draw attention to their product. What do the marketing, advertising, production and PR teams have to do to avoid the possible lawsuit crisis for vulgarity??
Be sure to watch on Sunday and see what type of commercial Anheuser-Busch puts out. Will it be one that is full of women or will they go another route....we shall see.