Beer wars

If you watch football, then you know there are a few truths about beer advertising.

• There are just two major brands (I don't get this).
• They mostly ignore each other.
• Until lately.

There hasn't been any direct competition in years (it could be many years). This fall Miller has launched a set of advertisements aimed directly at football watching audiences and their primary competition in the light beer market, Budweiser.

The result was at least different. A series of ads featuring football referee's throwing flags, blowing whistles and making up inane penalties related to the targeted individuals (it does sound a bit like football, doesn't it?) eventually requiring replacement of the 'offensive' Bud Light with Miller Lite.

The first one I saw made me laugh out loud. The others were humorous but the cat was out of the bag, so to speak.

Over the recent weekend, Anheuser Busch fired back with a parody that was just as good as the original Miller ad. It starts with a pack of referee's throwing and blowing; and winds up in a sideline conversation. And then the people who had their beer switched start yelling, the ref's start running and eventually wind up in a Cops style arrest situation.

Not the height of our civilization to be sure, but it was funny.

What I'm hoping is that with the battle joined, we'll see a bunch of this sort of one-upmanship through the rest of the season. The usual litany of mind numbing ads for beer and cars and whatever else they're pushing needs a bit of a shake up long before we hit Super Bowl.