Fan Feedback

 

Dear Mr Miller,

I am a photographer and understand the laws concerning copyright infringement. I also understand the principles of marketing.

I must congratulate Anheuser-Busch on the success of its Great American Heroes / Real Men of Genius Ad Campaign. I, like most people, get a chuckle out of listening to the ads and I personally have introduced many of my friends and associates to them via websites that offer them in a "listen on demand" environment.*

Frankly, I always wondered why Anheuser-Busch does not post the ads on its own website. The only reason I could think of was that you had an agreement with the media that plays the ads, not to offer those ads elsewhere, but that would make no sense, so my wondering still plagues me.

The company I work for as Director of Photography, advertises as part of its marketing program, and on occasion we have had the opportunity to get free advertising which is always welcome. Why would your company not welcome the playing of your very clever ads, in essence,free advertising?

Oh yes, let's address the possibility that someone visiting the website http://budlight.whipnet.com/ would confuse the site as being affiliated somehow with the official anheuserbusch.com. Perhaps the people who might be confused about that, drank a bit too much of your fine product.

Do you honestly think that a website such as http://budlight.whipnet.com/ will actually harm the sale of your products? I think not. I think, if anything, it would increase the sales of your product.

If I were in charge of marketing for Anheuser-Busch, I would consider entering into a business relationship with the owner of http://budlight.whipnet.com/ perhaps by asking him for permission to offer guidance and rules for the proper web environment that would agree with your standards. I am sure that the webmaster would agree to post adequate warnings to web surfers, assuring them as to what the association is or is not between their website and Anheuser-Busch.

If you truly want to knock this guy out of his claimed 60,000 daily web hits, why don't you post the actual master recordings on your website for people to listen to and download. The same ad can be listened to and recorded from the radio stations that you pay hard earned advertising dollars to and I suspect that the radio was in fact the source of the mp3 files that http://budlight.whipnet.com/ uses.

*I must confess that I have downloaded the collection of ads and share them with my friends when the mood strikes. Am I in violation of your company's policy? I do drink Budweiser Select as my beer of choice. Does that give me amnesty from a legal action on your behalf? A little LITE humor, BUD. Sorry I couldn't resist.

By the way, what is the name of the actor who does the voice over for the ads? I seem to remember hearing his voice before in other radio ads.

Thanks for taking your valuable time to listen to my opinion concerning your cease and desist demand and his plea for listener support. I bet you have been inundated with e-mails concerning this matter. I wonder if you will even read mine. I hope you can resolve this issue amicably and come to some kind of compromise.





Ira E.
Director of Photography