Bud Light & HBO Team Up to Scorch Super Bowl 53

Early in Super Bowl LIII, we yawned as the tired Dilly Dilly characters, in a promotion for Bud Light’s zero corn syrup, traveled to competing beer fortresses to unload corn syrup that was mistakenly delivered to them (not without controversy). Imagine the excitement for its second ad… well, if you went to the fridge for a beer run, suffice to say in a game that underwhelmed, Bud Light and HBO’s Game of Thrones cross-promotion added some much-needed fire.

Beginning with the Bud Knight telling squires to hold his beer as he prepared for a jousting match and the Dilly Dilly king reflecting on how much better life is without the plague, the ad seemed to be treading old ground. Then, the Bud Knight lost the joust and the unexpected happened. His skull got crushed by GOT’s The Mountain! Next, a dragon swooped down and burnt the arena! It was jarring and hilarious.

The ad was part of a $20-million campaign by HBO to pump up GOT’s final season. The Wall Street Journal called it “the biggest and boldest marketing tie-in the AT&T Inc.-owned cable network has ever orchestrated.” Since the Dilly Dilly campaign has been parodying GOT since 2017, Anheuser-Busch saw it fit to allow HBO to take over one of its spots. It cost $9.4 million and garnered over 183 million hits on social media.

Not only was this commercial popular with the public, it was also admired among advertising professionals—representing nearly a quarter of all discussions on the app Fishbowl (a work-chat app) with HBO ranking first in its “best of” poll. The fight for the Iron Throne has begun.