Ben Ashauer

Busch Beer has a storied history of connecting with its traditional Midwestern audience by poking fun at ridiculous trends.

So when we announced the release of our first-ever flavor innovation, Busch Light Apple, we launched it in the form of an Apple product parody.

It’s still Busch’s biggest and most successful campaign to date, as it ignited a sales frenzy among fans, created solid media buzz, and won a Shorty for Best Multi-Platform Campaign.

I wrote, produced, edited, and even acted as “Cuppy” for over thirty videos (some TVC, others social) for Dunkin' Maine. Our message was that every day is worth seizing and celebrating with #CarpeDunkin.

This campaign won several of the top awards for the Maine Public Relations Council.

As a longtime Farm Rescue partner, Busch Light continuously donates to farmers in need. However, we wanted to go deeper into the actual stories of these farmers to show Busch Light exactly how their purchases are impacting farmers’ lives.

That’s why we talked to the farmers, themselves, and shared their inspiring comeback stories with the world, with long-form and short-form TVCs.

I led all things social media for Wawa, from strategy to creative. This included organic and paid posts for both evergreen content and campaigns.

Video content can be seen below due to embedding issues:

1. “Car Troubles” (evergreen)

2. “Going Out” (evergreen)

3. “$0 Delivery” (campaign)

After Lebron James' infamous "cramps" episode, which led to the Miami Heat's Game 1 loss to the San Antonio Spurs in the NBA Finals, I came up with the idea to tie it in with JetBlue's perk of having the most legroom in coach.

This post was featured on news outlets such as The Today Show, The Huffington Post, Northeastern Sports Network and Time. (The design is meant to convey a person with cramps being helped off the court, a la Lebron)

This post was nominated for a Shorty Award.

CDs: Tim Cawley, Dylan Bernd; AD: Lauren Geisler

Busch Light stan, Devlin “Duck” Hodges, was in the middle of a Cinderella run with the Pittsburgh Steelers in late 2019.

Fans embraced his background as an avid duck hunter and tried showing their support by bringing duck whistles inside the stadium. However, the NFL banned them.

That’s why we stepped in to share our support for our pal with the Busch Light Fowl Towel. Fans could essentially “quack” for their rags-to-riches duck hunter/quarterback with our free merch.

They saw immediate success, as fans waved them proudly throughout the NBC Sunday Night Football broadcast.

From digital videos to TVCs, I led ideation and copywriting for Busch Light’s NASCAR partnerships.

These Wawa/Eagles posts were planned on being published for the 2024 playoffs…until the Eagles decided to collapse in historic fashion. But here are some posts I created for this hypothetical scenario.

I was asked to write a TVC for the Virginia Tourism Corporation that had to include the following elements: Southwest Virginia scenery, a local bluegrass band and a "Virginia is for Lovers" trucker hat...all while promoting support for local musicians. This was the result.

I helped launch Anheuser-Busch’s first-ever brew made specifically for dogs, Busch Dog Brew! Not only did it allow me to take a break from our normal audience (people), it let me connect with our favorite drinking buddies (dogs).

It was such a hit that I was asked to steer subsequent campaigns, such as a contest to find our Chief Tasting Officer and the face of our Turkey Dog Brew via a “Busch Bark Bracket.”

I also came up with the idea to partner with a prominent YouTube dog trainer to teach dogs to retrieve brews from the fridge during the holidays. I helped create a content schedule and even helped produce a series of videos that came from our direction to the dog trainer, Nate Schoemer.

For April Fools’ Day, we came up with the idea to launch a product for people who love Busch so much, they’d want their beards to smell like it. Though our fans loved it as a joke, there was a huge response for us to make the product.

We then used the April Fools’ Day success to make a collab with Duke Cannon to bring it to life. It can still be found on shelves today!

To promote our partnership with the National Forest Foundation, we celebrated Earth Day by releasing a satirical book about beautiful trees.

As I wrote the book, I gave each tree a personality and gave a profile on their beauty, both inside and out.

I also lent my voiceover “talents” to the audiobook version: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zh4kmDaeQ3E

We created a campaign for Marriott Vacation Club rentals based on the idea that they help you stay comfortable, even outside your comfort zone.

It was originally meant to live solely on digital but it was so successful that the client requested we reconfigure it for broadcast.

CD: Jeremy Kinder

AD: Caitlin Workman

The vertically challenged among us never have the concert experience they envision. There’s always a tall guy in the way. However, while the tall guy in the crowd may have the best view of anyone, he is understandably overwhelmed with guilt.

Luckily, Wake Up Call Fest has a way to heighten everyone’s experience.

Introducing: The Tall Guy Cam. With an easy-to-access live stream on the YouTube Live, the shorter population can see their favorite artists, rather than the back of a tall guy’s head. And instead of a tall guy ruining another person’s experience, they finally get to share a perspective that others have always coveted, thanks to a view provided by a GoPro attached to their forehead.

This didn’t end up happening, but I’m keeping it in my book just to eventually will it into existence one day.

CD: Jeremy Kinder