Eight years ago, the “Wassup” phrase helped sell millions of cases of Budweiser. Today, it’s being used to help sell a political candidate.

Charles Stone III, who created the original campaign for Budweiser, has revived the phrase in a campaign posted on YouTube. Since Friday, one version of the ad has been viewed more than 2 million times.

Neither Anheuser-Busch nor its ad agency Omnicom can do much to stop the use of the phrase because neither company owns the “Wassup” slogan or concept. At one point, the brewer paid Mr. Stone about $37,000 to license the idea for five years, but that deal expired three years ago. As such, the slogan is arguably Mr. Stone’s to use as he wishes.

In an article in The Wall Street Journal, attorney Douglas J. Wood said, “If First Amendment butts up against copyright law, First Amendment would generally win, particularly when it’s done in a political context.” Since these ads would likely be seen as parody in a court of law, Mr. Stone probably has a case for his right to use the phrase. (In a separate incident, the First Amendment protection of parody helps explain why Al Franken can call Rush Limbaugh a “Big, Fat Liar” and get away with it.)

Reaction to the ad campaign hasn’t been all positive. Comments on the YouTube page where the ad is posted have ranged from support to outrage.

If we recall correctly, the Busch family are staunch Republicans. Should Anheuser-Busch sue to stop the use of the phrase for political purposes?  What’s your opinion?

Recently, Budweiser announced that it was shifting it’s marketing strategy from campaigns that were outrageously creative to campaigns that did a better job of differentiating the brand.

Okay, we’re with you so far. Sounds like a good idea.

So, they tossed out all the outrageously creative ad campaigns they were doing and started with a blank slate.

Hmmm. Interesting. Keep going.

We’re pretty sure they did a gazillion dollars worth of new research to find out exactly what it is that makes Budweiser different. They are, after all, Budweiser and they do, after all, actually have a gazillion dollars. (Seriously. They do. Just look in their checkbook and it says, “A Gazillion Dollars.” We’ve seen it.)

Anyway, where were we? Oh yeah, Budweiser did a bunch of research that established some of the things that make Budweiser different. And what they came up with was “drinkability,” which is a term, we guess, that communicates that Bud goes down smoother and tastes better.

Okay, not a lot to argue with there. So where did it take them?

That’s the problem — where did the “drinkability” strategy take them? As you can see in Illustration #1, Bud’s old ads were “Outrageously Creative” which made them highly-memorable (Wazzzzup!) but not necessarily distinctive.

Today, their new campaign has shifted to “Stunningly Strategic” (see Illustration #2) which has put them in an arena of overly-boring, lame campaigns reminiscent of the original UPS “Brown” campaign.

You’ll recall the original UPS “Brown” campaign. Oh, that’s right, you probably don’t recall that campaign because it was so Stunningly Strategic that it simply bored people to death. We’re not kidding. They found people in Los Angeles who had watched the commercial and died of boredom.

(Okay, okay. We actually ARE kidding. Nobody died from watching the original UPS “Brown” commercials. They just felt like they died.)

So where were we? We were talking about how Budweiser’s new “Drinkability” campaign is so Stunningly Strategic that it just might bore people to death the way the original UPS “Brown” campaign did. (Again, we’re kidding about the UPS thing. Really. Nobody died. We’re just saying that to make a point.)

What can we all learn from this?

Several things:

1. It’s very normal for a corporation’s marketing strategy to move back and forth between one extreme and another;
2. The saavy marketer will resist the temptation to let the pendulum swing too far to one extreme or the other;
3. If you do go to the extremes, you can suffer the fate of the old Bud spots which were so Outrageously Creative that they lost their ability to differentiate the brand;
4. On the other hand, if you allow yourself to become so Stunningly Strategic, you just might suffer the fate of the original UPS “Brown” commercials which actually bored people to death (stop it already!).

The bottom line:

The sweet spot for all ad campaigns is something right in the middle, that’s on-strategy, but also has a high degree of memorability to it. If you can hit that sweet spot (easier said than done), you can knock it out of the park just about every time.

So, next time you get approached about doing something Stunningly Strategic or Outrageously Creative, resist the temptation to go to the extremes. The best campaigns are made up of ads that are on-strategy and highly-creative at the same time.

Give it a shot. If you do what we’re talking about here, there’s a pretty good chance you’ll hit it out of the park. And if that happens, we’ll all drink a toast to your success.

Check out Bud’s “Drinkability” Commercial by clicking here.