Remember that Bud Lite commercial from the Super Bowl where some random, regular guy gets transported to an insane party after agreeing to take the beer and "whatever happens next" along with it? The one with Arnold Schwarzenegger?
This year, Budweiser has a new ad called "Coin" that follows this similar formula, but the end result is something wildly unexpected. And crazy awesome.
Now that Super Bowl XLIX is near, companies are already starting to roll out their all-important ads that will play during the game. Yeah, we've actually reached the point in pop culture where the ads are such a big deal that some of them are released online before the game. This Bud Lite ad is sure to be one that gets tongues wagging come Super Bowl night.
In the ad, another random dude orders a Bud Lite and gets asked by the bartender if he's "up for whatever happens next." Being a red-blooded American male, naturally he says yes. But he has no idea what he's in store for. A block or two from the bar, he enters what looks like a life-sized video game arcade machine, and gets the shock of his life: a wild, raging party is taking place around the periphery of a gigantic, real-life, high-tech game of Pac-Man.
And our average guy is Pac-Man.
The technology behind the game setup is impressive: LED floor lights for pellets (that can change to cherries on-the-fly) that register the guy's steps, people in tricked-out ghost costumes that light up and recognize his touch, pitch-perfect sound effects and even bright blue neon lights around the dark play space that make it look exactly like the iconic Pac-Man maze when viewed from the top down.
The ghosts alone are jaw-dropping, looking like ghosts from the game that have been pulled into the real world. Their eyes even move, and they change colors when our "Pac-Man" guy turns the tables and starts chasing them.
We have no idea if this whole thing is staged or if it's 100% real. The guy could be a paid actor for all we know.
But what we're really wondering is how we can get in on the action. If Bud Lite built this technical marvel of a Pac-Man game that anyone can run through and play just for this one commercial... What a waste that would be! They could make a killing off this thing by setting it up in a theme park and charging people to run through it. Or maybe they could dismantle it and make the thing mobile to go on tour with it, building it in parking lots and fairgrounds.
Come on, Budweiser. There has to be a way.
