When Anheuser-Busch was bought by Brazilian-Belgian giant Inbev last year, there was great concern that Anheuser-Busch's sports advertising and promotion might be in jeopardy as the two companies had had a different philosophy towards advertising and promotion.  At the time of the merger, the two companies had made public assurances that nothing would change, but companies do that routinely at merger time, whether they really mean it is another question.  It's sort of like a coach who tells you that he loves his current job, the city great, the fans are wonderful and he would never consider another job and wham, he becomes Nick Saban and you wake up two days later and he has a new job.


Well, it appears that this time, the companies were telling the truth.  Anheuser-Busch and the NFL are preparing to announce a $1billion (yes, with a "B") deal for Bud Light to replace Coors Light as the official beer sponsor of the NFL.  It will be a six year deal beginning in 2011.  Even though Coors Light has had official sponsorship since 2002, Budweiser has held official sponsorship of the Super Bowl for the last 22 years.  Prior to 2002, Budweiser shared sponsorship of the league with Miller, but that changed in 2002 when sponsorship became an exclusive and Miller won the original exclusive bidding.