# Budweiser Born the Hard Way

> iSpot.tv reported 14.3 million earned online views for Budweiser's founder ad.

- Owner: Budweiser
- Kind: Campaign
- Sector: Food & beverage
- Seed date: 2017-01-31
- Peak date: 2017-02-05
- Spread Score: 37 (Niche), v1.2
- Mechanics: Maker origin, Controversy, Platform jump, Press loop, Response chain

## Summary

Budweiser released its founder ad before the Super Bowl. Boycott posts and coverage spread before the paid TV placement. It led YouTube's game-day views ranking; AB InBev later reported a quarterly US Budweiser volume decline without isolating the ad's effect.

## Timeline

- 2017-01-30 — Fortune (Press) — Fortune reported a 15-second teaser ahead of the full Super Bowl commercial.
- 2017-01-31 — Budweiser (YouTube) — Budweiser released the full founder-story commercial on YouTube.
- 2017-01-31 — TIME (Press) — TIME covered the founder story ahead of the Super Bowl.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/budweiser-born-the-hard-way

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Budweiser Born the Hard Way.” Case HIS-00066. Spread Score v1.2: 37/100. Updated 2026-10-13. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-00066