Dodging copyright to prove a point of history / Budweiser "TagWords"

The problem

In Brazil's beer market, Budweiser is positioned as a premium brand. But there was a problem when it came to proving its deep connection with music. Countless photos exist on Google showing legendary musicians like Jimi Hendrix, Mick Jagger, and the Beastie Boys casually holding a Bud. But none of them could be used in advertising. Copyright and image rights couldn't be cleared—Budweiser hadn't commissioned or paid for any of them. That's exactly what made them authentic, and exactly why they couldn't be used. A real dilemma.

The insight

A simple but powerful discovery: "If we can't show it, let people find it themselves." Instead of putting the photo in the ad, put only the search keywords that lead to that photo. This sidesteps copyright entirely—and more importantly, the act of discovering it yourself becomes the very proof of the brand's historic connection to music. Finding something actively through your own search sticks in memory far more than simply being shown it passively.

The idea

Simple visuals with a red background and white text were rolled out across outdoor ads, beer coasters, magazines, and storefronts of music bars. All they showed were search terms like "1969 musicians sessions Budweiser" or "1987 California hip-hop Budweiser." When people typed these into Google, up came photos like Mick Jagger and Keith Richards holding a Bud backstage, or the Beastie Boys' Adam Horovitz spraying Bud over the crowd onstage. Ten photos were chosen featuring different artists spanning music genres like rock and hip-hop, and were targeted based on each user's search history and musical taste. It was the perfect idea for launching the new tagline, "the beer behind the music."

What happened

The campaign won the Grand Prix in the Print & Publishing category at the 2018 Cannes Lions, along with two Golds and four Silvers. As a result of the campaign, the search terms were searched more than 5 million times, and the relevance of those photos on Google increased by more than 7,000%—all without any SEO investment. Jury president Kate Stanners praised it as "beautiful, simple, but it takes you somewhere else." The campaign was later expanded into other sports areas like soccer and basketball, proving the strength of Budweiser's whole "the beer behind the..." platform. It was also the first Grand Prix win ever for both Africa (the agency) and AB InBev.

Afterthought

The reversal of logic—"make people search" instead of "show them"—is simply beautiful. It turns the constraint of copyright into something that makes the experience even more powerful. A printed piece becomes a doorway into the endless archive that is Google. And above all, the whole campaign carries a quiet pride: nobody paid for these photos, nobody asked for them—which is exactly what makes them real. A Grand Prix in Print should go to work like this, that expands what paper can do. Now I feel like searching for something myself.

Awards

• Cannes Lions Grand Prix 2018

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