Sean, maybe I can shed a little light on this. In my career, I worked on a lot of TV commercials and a few Anheuser-Busch television commercials, Bud Bowl included. A couple of my fellow production types met the Producer from the St. Louis advertising agency at a pretty cool Beverly Hills restaurant for drinks and then dinner.
I sat with those guys while one consumed an Amstel and the other had a Bud Light, when the agency producer showed up, a little late, the first thing we heard in a very distinct voice was, "Get that beer out of here," she said. It was clear that she would not sit down at the same table where anything but an A-B beer product was being consumed. The Amstel drinker called for the waiter and ordered a cold Bud in the can, handing off the Amstel to a bus boy.
The producer then sat down at the table after the competitive product had been removed and said, "If anyone from A-B management walked into the restaurant and saw anything but an A-B product on the table she would have been fired.
Strangely and unexpectedly August Busch IV and his posse walked into the same bar about twenty minutes later, recognized the St. Louis producer with us, walked over to the table and was introduced to all of us, besides mixed drinks the only beer products on the table were A-B, fortunately.
The same happens on most productions for Pepsi, 7-up, Coke, and Kellogg's and more. As a courtesy to the client competitive products are never consumed around the advertising client, never.
I am sure this is the case with anything that may have happened involving a Budweiser product and sponsorship for any kind of racing, Kenny did the right thing
BTW, we didn't get the Bud Bowl job that year.
