Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1984. In this ad, a poster really, it shows Wrigley Field and congratulates the Chicago Cubs for being the National League Eastern Division Champs. Tonight the Cubs won their first World Series in a very long time. When I couldn’t keep my eyes open any longer, they were up 4-1, and when I work up this morning in Belgium, it looks like I missed a barnburner of a finish.
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1984. In this ad, a baseball player is arguing with the umpire, usually a foolish exercise in futility. With the Cubs big win tonight, perhaps the next game will be full of such arguments. Certainly it should be a very exciting game.
I’m a huge fan of the self-driving technology. I can’t wait until the first driverless cars go on the market; I’ll be one of the first in lone to but one, if I can. Not only will it improve traffic, curb (my) road rage, and allow greater alcohol consumption outside the home, it will also have the added benefit of making organizations like MADD and Alcohol Justice obsolete (which is why I believe they’re not pushing for this technology more). So as we get one step closer to eradicating drunk driving, I think it’s appropriate that the first commercial delivery of goods via a self-driving truck was essentially a beer run.
So a few days ago, the start-up company Otto announced that their first successful test run took place last week in Colorado, when a truck using their technology delivered 200 cases of Budweiser from their brewery in Fort Collins to Colorado Spring, about 120 miles away. Much like an airplane pilot, a drive manually drove it onto the highway and then engaged the autopilot which drove the truck the rest of the way to its destination. The drive hopped in the back to relax and was on hand the entire journey in case anything needed his attention.
Otto itself posted the story on its blog three days ago, and it’s been picked up all over the country, including by the New York Times, CNBC, Tree Hugger and Mashable
The company itself was founded earlier this year, in January, and subsequently bought by Uber for $680 million in August. But it’s pretty impressive that they’ve gone from zero to successful commercial test in such a short time. According to various reports, several other car companies are working on similar technologies, too, so maybe a self-driving world might actually happen in my lifetime. That would be awesome.
ABI even created commemorative beer cans to mark the beer run.
Here’s a video of the story:
And Wired also has a video of the truck in action, and explains a bit about how it actually works.
Saturday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1914, No. 10 in another series they did in 1914-15 called the “National Heroes Series.” The tenth, and final, one features Lajos Kossuth, who “was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Governor-President of the Kingdom of Hungary during the revolution of 1848–49. With the help of his talent in oratory in political debates and public speeches, Kossuth emerged from a poor gentry family into regent-president of Kingdom of Hungary. As the most influential contemporary American journalist Horace Greeley said of Kossuth: “Among the orators, patriots, statesmen, exiles, he has, living or dead, no superior.” Kossuth’s powerful English and American speeches so impressed and touched the most famous contemporary American orator Daniel Webster, that he wrote a book about Kossuth’s life. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in Great Britain and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe. Kossuth’s bronze bust can be found in the United States Capitol with the inscription: “Father of Hungarian Democracy, Hungarian Statesman, Freedom Fighter, 1848–1849.”
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1914, No. 8 in another series they did in 1914-15 called the “National Heroes Series.” The eighth one features Daniel O’Connell, who was “often referred to as The Liberator or The Emancipator, was an Irish political leader in the first half of the 19th century. He campaigned for Catholic emancipation—including the right for Catholics to sit in the Westminster Parliament, denied for over 100 years—and repeal of the Act of Union which combined Great Britain and Ireland.”
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1914, No. 7 in another series they did in 1914-15 called the “National Heroes Series.” The seventh one features Andreas Hofer, who “was a Tyrolean innkeeper and drover, who in 1809 became the leader of the Tyrolean Rebellion against the French and Bavarian occupation forces during the War of the Fifth Coalition. He was subsequently captured and executed. Hofer is still today venerated as a folk hero, freedom fighter and Austrian patriot.” Curiously, the ad states he was from Switzerland, while the sources I looked at all said he was born in a part of Austria that today is part of Italy.
Monday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1914, No. 5 in another series they did in 1914-15 called the “National Heroes Series.” The fifth one features Leif Ericsson, who “was an Icelandic explorer considered by some as the first European to land in North America (excluding Greenland), before Christopher Columbus. According to the Sagas of Icelanders, he established a Norse settlement at Vinland, tentatively identified with the Norse L’Anse aux Meadows on the northern tip of Newfoundland in modern-day Canada.
Leif was the son of Erik the Red, the founder of the first Norse settlement in Greenland and of Þjóðhildur (anglicized Thjodhild). He was likely born in Iceland, and grew up in the family estate Brattahlíð in the Eastern Settlement in Greenland. Leif had two known sons: Thorgils, born to noblewoman Thorgunna in the Hebrides; and Thorkell, who succeeded him as chieftain of the Greenland settlement.”
Sunday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1914, No. 4 in another series they did in 1914-15 called the “National Heroes Series.” The fourth one features Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronté, more commonly known as Lord Nelson, who “was a British flag officer in the Royal Navy. He was noted for his inspirational leadership, superb grasp of strategy, and unconventional tactics, all of which resulted in a number of decisive naval victories, particularly during the Napoleonic Wars, (1797-1815). He was significantly wounded several times in combat, losing the sight of his right eye during the campaign in Corsica, and later the brutal amputation of his right arm in the unsuccessful attempt to conquer Santa Cruz de Tenerife in the Atlantic’s Azore Islands off northeast Africa. He was shot and killed during his final pivotal victory at the naval Battle of Trafalgar against the combined Napoleonic French and Royal Spanish fleets off the southwest coast of Spain in 1805.”
Saturday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1914, No. 3 in another series they did in 1914-15 called the “National Heroes Series.” The third one features Tadeusz Kościuszko, who “was a Polish-Lithuanian military engineer and a military leader who became a national hero in Poland, Lithuania, Belarus, and the United States. He fought in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth’s struggles against Russia and Prussia, and on the American side in the American Revolutionary War. As Supreme Commander of the Polish National Armed Forces, he led the 1794 Kościuszko Uprising.”
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1914, No. 2 in another series they did in 1914-15 called the “National Heroes Series.” The second one features Giuseppe Garibaldi, who “was an Italian general and politician and nationalist who played a large role in the history of Italy. He is considered, with Camillo Cavour, Victor Emmanuel II and Giuseppe Mazzini, as one of Italy’s “fathers of the fatherland.”
