We Will Never Forget

We, as a country, easily forget the past and are consumed with the present.

Let us never forget those who died on September 11, 2001.

“We’ll Never Forget” – Budweiser September 20th Tenth Anniversary Commercial.

Full credit to the Budweiser Corporation.
No disrespect to copyright intended.
Used here only as tribute.

R.I.P. Doug Cherry

Mariemont Class of ’81

National September 11 Memorial & Museum

The Story Behind the Video:

As the anniversary of the September 11th terror attacks approaches we are looking back at one of the most powerful tributes to the victims over the years.

One of those tributes was an emotional ad featuring the Budweiser Clydesdales. In the ad, the Clydesdales honor the memory of the fallen with an unforgettable, breathtaking bow.

If your eyes were glued to the TV at just the right moment, you witnessed — in real time — a bit of history.

During Super Bowl XXXVI on February 3, 2002 — when many viewers pay as much attention to the nifty ads as to the game — Budweiser ran an ad like no other.

No narration, it didnt need it. Just images of the famous Clydesdale horses trotting across the countryside and then finding their way across the Brooklyn Bridge.

Afterward they stopped upon a snow-covered Battery Park — and bowing together toward the Manhattan skyline, which had been without the familiar sight of the World Trade Center twin towers since September 11, 2001.

If you didn’t see the commercial at that time, you later hoped someone you knew taped it — because it never aired again.

The Anheuser-Busch’s creative team came up with the concept and moved heaven and earth to make the commercial, even having to get approval from members of Congress, the advertising community and from then New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.

“We filmed in New York City,” Bob Lachky, former executive vice president of Anheuser-Busch Global Creative said. “We had a helicopter going over the Brooklyn Bridge,” he recalled. “Mayor 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 Clydesdales … the hitch coming into Battery Park and it was amazing, just amazing.”

The wintertime scene meant that 9/11 was still fresh on everyone’s minds, having occurred just a few months before filming.

“The police were very, very nervous about everything that was going on in the city at that time,” Lachky said.

Budweiser aired an updated spot of the Clydesdales’ commercial on the 20th anniversary of 9/11 in 2021 which is featured above — and in it the horses stop and bow on grass before a Manhattan skyline featuring the finished One World Trade Center ‘Freedom Tower’ skyscraper and twin beams of light in place of the fallen towers.

“We feel our 9/11 Clydesdales tribute ad is very special,” Paul Chibe, VP-marketing at Anheuser-Busch, said in a statement regarding the 2011 commercial. “We were proud to re-air the spot on Sunday, the 10th anniversary, as a way to help raise awareness of the fundraising campaign for the National September 11 Memorial & Museum. The subtle changes in the ad were intended to reflect the passing of time, and the most important point, that we should never forget those lost and affected by 9/11.”

Here’s the 2002 commercial that aired just one time:

It was amazing, especially considering how New York was a city still hurting. And yet a St. Louis-based company, touched by the pain of the worst act of terrorism on U.S. soil, took a risk to help one of our favorite cities and our nation heal.

“With this tribute, we wanted to respectfully honor those affected by the events of September 11th,” Jorn Socquet, vice president of marketing at Anheuser-Busch said. “While the original ad aired just once, the Budweiser Clydesdales delivered our sentiments in a moving way that continues to resonate.”
While the commercial only aired once, the video resurfaces almost every year on social media. “We are humbled to hear from people around the world who are re-watching and sharing the ad online as a way of observing the anniversary,” says Socquet.