Budweiser has debuted the commercial they’ll be airing during Super Bowl LX, set for Sunday, February 8. The clip is soundtracked by none other than the iconic “Free Bird” by Lynyrd Skynyrd.
In the epic ad, a Clydesdale pony and a baby bald eagle become best friends and grow up together. The commercial crescendos with the animals fully grown and the bald eagle launching itself off the back of the horse. All this is accented by Skynyrd’s instantly recognizable hit.
The advertisement is also celebrating the beer company’s 150th anniversary and America’s 250th birthday. Said Todd Allen, senior vice president of marketing for Budweiser at Anheuser-Busch: “We knew we had to rise to the occasion in a way only Budweiser can.”
This is far from the first use of “Free Bird” in a soundtrack. The song has also been used in films like Forrest Gump, Kingsman: The Secret Service, Elizabethtown, and The Devil’s Rejects.
Back in May, over 50 years after its initial release, “Free Bird” finally received its first ever official music video. Directed by Knocked Loose and Chloe Moriondo collaborator Max Moore, the nine-minute-plus epic centers on an older man dusting off his photo albums and taking a trip down memory lane, recalling a romance from his younger days.
“Free Bird” was initially released in 1973 as part of Lynyrd Skynyrd’s debut LP. It rocketed up the charts over the next two years, landing in the Top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 by 1975. Since then, it has amassed over 867 million Spotify streams and has been covered by seminal artists like Bob Dylan and Dolly Parton. In other news from the Florida band, they’ll be heading out on tour this summer with Foreigner for the Double Trouble Double Vision Tour, which will take the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers all across North America.