Budweiser has long used the Super Bowl to tie its stately Clydesdale horses to the national mood. This year, the brewer’s stance won’t be hard to understand.
In one of the beer giant’s less subtle Big Game spots, a young Clydesdale pony becomes lifelong friends with a baby bald eagle, and the two grow up together to the strains of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “Free Bird.” At one point in the 60-second commercial, which will air during NBC’s February 8 telecast of Super Bowl LX, the horse jumps over an obstacle as the bird, riding on his back, spreads its wings, making the animal look like the mythical Pegasus.
The spot is meant to celebrate Budweiser’s 150th anniversary and America’s 250th birthday, says Todd Allen, senior vice president of marketing for Budweiser at Anheuser-Busch, in a statement. “We knew we had to rise to the occasion in a way only Budweiser can,” the executive says. “This year’s spot will leave fans awestruck and proud to enjoy a Budweiser as they celebrate our shared milestone moments.”
The Clydesdales have become a Super Bowl favorite, and their appearance in 2026 will mark their 48th overall in the advertising roster of the gridiron spectacle. A Clydesdale cameo is not always guaranteed, and usually hinges on whether executives at Anheuser-Busch feel they have a creative concept that meets the moment.
But the marketing of Budweiser, an American consumer staple, has long been tied to the national disposition. In 2002, the Clydesdales helped a nation heal in the aftermath of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. In 2017, just as the first Trump administration sought to bar travel from seven Muslim-majority countries., Anheuser-Busch ran a spot featuring a young Adolphus Busch making his way to St. Louis from Germany and encountering hostile remarks, including “You don’t look like you’re from here,” “Go back home,” and “You’re not wanted here.”
In 2026, the Clydesdales seem to be feeling their oats.
Budweiser worked with director Henry-Alex Rubin for the third consecutive year in crafting its Super Bowl effort. Use of the 1973 Lynyrd Skynyrd classic is also notable, because while the song has appeared in movies including “Forrest Gump,” its use in advertising does not appear to be widespread. Classic rock anthems can serve as a great way to capture the broader Super Bowl audience, since many of the tunes continue to be well known despite their existence over many years. Last year, Nike tapped Led Zeppelin’s “Whole Lotta Love,” a 1969 rock staple, for its first Super Bowl appearance in nearly three decades. In 2024, Anheuser-Busch paired an appearance by the Clydesdales (and a friendly Labrador) with The Band’s 1968 mainstay “The Weight.”
Still, the spot will air as a broad but polarized audience of American consumers tunes into what is typically the biggest media event of the year. The nation has been focused in recent days on the treatment of people in Minnesota, where officers from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement have killed two individuals who did not appear in video footage to pose any immediate threat to them. U.S. consumers are also grappling with the effects of White House tariffs on the economy and U.S. saber-rattling aboard around Greenland and Venezuela.
Some Americans applaud these moves and others have protested them. Such issues and attitudes could play a role in how the Budweiser commercial gets embraced by consumers who see it.
The Clydesdales first appeared in a Budweiser Super Bowl commercial in 1975. Handlers spend hours every day brushing their manes and cleaning their horseshoes in addition to training them for media appearances.
How did they come to be associated with beer? August A. Busch, Jr. and Adolphus Busch III in early 1933 decided to surprise their father, August A. Busch, Sr. with the gift of a six-horse Clydesdale hitch to celebrate the repeal of Prohibition. The horses evoked memories of delivery of beer by wagon. In 2026, Anheuser-Busch operates three traveling teams, which of which spends about 300 days each year traveling across the U.S. The average male Clydesdale stands about six feet tall and weighs approximately 2,000 pounds.
Anheuser-Busch will have to see how viewers react to its latest ad to determine if consumers think the Clydesdales still present good horse sense or represent a horse of a different color.
