A poignant Budweiser commercial honoring the victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks that aired only once is being remembered.
The ad, which ran during Super Bowl XXXVI on Feb. 3, 2002 — less than five months after the attacks — featured the renowned Budweiser Clydesdales trekking from a farmhouse with snow on the ground to the shadow of New York City, where they take a knee while the city’s skyline appears in the distance.
There’s no voice-over and the beer company’s logo is absent from the commercial until the very end.
“We filmed in New York City,” said Bob Lachky, former executive vice president of Anheuser-Busch Global Creative, reports St. Louis’ FOX 2.
“We had a helicopter going over the Brooklyn Bridge. Mayor (Rudy) Giuliani let us into the city — the only film company of any sort right after 9/11. To actually come into air space with our helicopter to film the Clydesdale … the hitch coming into Battery Park and it was amazing … just amazing.”
The commercial aired during the game between the New England Patriots and St. Louis Rams.
While it was never shown again on television, it does live on YouTube and Anheuser-Busch aired an updated version of it in 2011 in honor of the 10th anniversary of the attacks.