Kicking off Super Bowl LIII
E-Trade Babies.
Starting about mark 7:40 there are ‘unsensored’ “that didn’t quite make it past the sensors” and “raw outtakes.”
The iconic frogs Bud, Weis and Er.
… and its entire series.
(note: at about mark 10:38 – 11:32 there is audio only, but no image)
Fun infor for the day, here is a wiki-version synopsis of the story line/plot behind “Louie, Frankie, and the Ferret.”
After the initial ads generated great interest, new creatures began making appearances in the swamp. Beginning at Super Bowl XXXII, a new campaign created by Goodby, Silverstein & Partners introduced two wisecracking chameleons made their debut. Louie, notable for his distinct Brooklyn accent (he was voiced by New York City voice actor Paul Christie), was irritated by the frogs’ incessant croaking, and jealous of their success, while Frankie, who speaks in a low baritone voice (voiced by the Broadway veteran Danny Mastrogiorgio), was his more rational, even-tempered friend. Frankie apparently socialized with the frogs and was puzzled by Louie’s animosity towards them.
As the series’ storyline progressed, it documented Louie’s enlisting the assistance of an inept ferret hit man, who tries to kill the frogs by dismantling and dropping the Budweiser neon sign into the swamp water, thus electrocuting them. Although this assassination attempt failed, it resulted in Weis developing post-electroshock muscular irregularity. Louie briefly replaced Weis in the Bud-Weis-Er cheer, but ended up getting all of them fired, due to Louie’s inability to just follow the script. The other frogs in return gave him a literal tongue-lashing and revealed to Louie that they could speak with a complete vocabulary and that they knew all along about his plot against them. These three frogs then began a new lifestyle as flashy tap-dancing and Fred Astaire-mimicking acts on Broadway.
The Budweiser Lizards later displaced the frogs entirely and continued appearing in television and radio advertisements into the early 2000s. In March 1999 Budweiser released a CD, Frank & Louie’s Greatest Hits, featuring songs such as “Sweet Home Alabama, “My Sharona”, and “Rock This Town” woven around alternate takes of some of Frank and Louie’s radio ads.
Preview of today’s Super Bowl LIII/2019 ads.
At USA Today you can “Watch every ad released so far” and “sign up to be an Ad Meter panelist” to vote on your favorite.
Join in and post your memorable Super Bowl ads. And later in the day, look for Mike’s take for a pre-game kick off post as he rounds out this year’s season.
Happy Game Day.
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