‘Wassup’ commercial returns with same cast, political twist

Acclaimed African-American filmmaker Charles Stone, who won a Clio award for his “Wassup” series of commercials for Budweiser eight years ago, unveiled his own parody of the popular campaign Friday afternoon. The two-minute spot, featuring the same group of friends Stone made famous hawking beer, returns “8 years later” to ask the same emblematic question, with somewhat different results:

Stone based the original Budweiser/Anheuser Busch “Wassup” commercial, which debuted during a Monday Night Football broadcast and later aired during the Super Bowl, on a short film he directed. After working for several years directing music videos, the Brooklyn-based filmmaker shot “True,” which attracted the notice of a Chicago ad agency and launched his career. In addition to the advertising industry’s Clio Award, the spot won the Grand Prix Award at the Cannes Film Festival.

The “Wassup” ad inspired numerous parodies, including a Heineken ad that depicted a group of African-American bar patrons who watch a similar commercial until one says, “This is really funny! Another round of Heineken!” Another campaign produced by Anheuser Busch parodied the ad featuring a cast of parrots, and another ad with yuppies, who asked, “What are you doing?”

h/t Nikki Finke.

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