Budweiser True Wassup Campaigns

Ever seen the Budweiser “Wazzup” “Wassup” or “Whassup” ads, or just heard it yelled incessantly around the room? If so, you’ve connected with the “True” campaign of Budweiser. You can find the ads at Whassup! – the ultimate whassup collection at trevc.net/whassup/hidden.html. This site has the Bud ads along with a huge number of takeoffs. There’s the Jewish ‘shalom’ ad for fish, and the English ‘Hello’ ad for tea, just for starters! Alternatively you can take a look at the budweiser ads online at:
www.visit4info.com Just do a search for budweiser and you’ll be given a couple of pages of cool ads to view for free. If you want to download higher quality you’ll need to join up for 15 English pounds a month, and then pay from 2 pounds per download.

Wassup Credits

The original campaign was directed Charles Stone III, pictured below, who had earlier filmed himself and his three friends playing with the words, “True” and “Whassup” in a three minute short film called “True”. DDB Chicago arranged for Stone to film again in the context of sixty second advertisements. After auditioning many hopefuls Stone ended up filming his buddies, actor Paul Williams, bouncer Scott Brooks, and filmmaker Fred Thomas. The four went on to make the series, and present Budweiser-sponsored appearances on television, including a series on television commercials.

New True Series

Budweiser have moved on to new audiences since those ads were screened, with a new selection of ‘True’ concepts: True Groove, True Gametime, True Escape, True Music, True Freshness, True World, and True Landscape. These are all available to view on Budweiser’s website (listed below), in Quicktime, Windows Media and Real. As with most USA alcohol-related sites, you must be over 21 to enter.

I’m getting a few enquiries about the music soundtrack for the new True series. After a bit of research here’s what I know:
True Music: “Face to Face” by Daft Punk
True Escape: “Best Days of Our Lives” by Weekend Players
True Refreshment: Track specially composed by freelancer, Mikael Sandgren
True World: “To Get Down”, by Timo Maas.
The music was put together by Deepmix. Music was produced by Digital Kitchen in Chicago. All this for DDB Chicago for the company behind Budweiser, Anheuser Busch.

10 Replies to “Budweiser True Wassup Campaigns”

  1. Any idea what the song is in the “true world” ad? I’ve looked everywhere, but have not yet located the name of the song or group.

  2. what is the name of the music track in the “true freshness” ad, and who made the track? id love to find out!! i think it’s a good ad, and amazing
    music.

    much appreciated, thanx

  3. Thanks for blogging this! I heard the “best days of our lives” on the bud commercial, and had to know who performed it! You rock!

  4. is stone’s original short film ‘true’ available to see anywhere on the web? i can’t find it. not the original bud ad, but his original 3-min short film. i’d love to see that.

  5. I am putting a radio ad campaign together that aims to prevent people copying and selling illegal film and TV downloads. We want to capture our target market by beginning with the “Wassup” phrase but don’t want to be in breach of any copyright issues ourselves. Is there copyright on this phrase and if so who would we need to ask for permission to use it?

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