Budweiser styles its brand the King of Beers, and a recent decision by the brand proves they are the King of Hearts too. Recently, massive floods killed people and destroyed homes and towns in Texas and Oklahoma. Many people left their homes with little more than the clothes on their backs. Transportation was impossible with flooded roads filling cars and rising water pushing everything, including the asphalt, off in its wake.
Many charities and businesses stepped in to help those affected by this disaster, including Anheuser-Busch. The company paused beer production at its Georgia brewery to produce drinking water instead. More than 50,000 cans of life-sustaining water were filled at the Cartersville brewery and delivered to the American Red Cross for disaster relief.
Speaking to NBC News, Cartersville brewery manager Rob Haas said, “Right now our production line is running emergency drinking water instead of beer. It’s something we’re uniquely positioned to do in a very timely period.”
Shortly after the switch was made on the production line, 2,000 cases of much-needed water were on their way to the communities in Texas and Oklahoma that needed it most. Red Cross spokesman Jordan Scott told the media the water was “critical” to relief efforts.
Reports of the move also proved to offer positive PR for Anheuser-Busch. While the company and its lines of beer are already wildly popular, they did not have to make this decision. Certainly, many competitors did not. However, because the company had a “unique opportunity” they acted on it.
Sometimes the difference between a neutral message and positive public relations can come down to the simple decision to Do Something Good when others are simply going about business as usual. Now, this is not to say that no other brands helped out. Many did. But few in so public and integral a way as this. In a week full of tragic news and horror stories, Budweiser stepped up and gave us a reason to smile, to say thank you, and to marvel at how one company can make a huge difference with a simple decision to act.