Patrick Davis, an architect, doesn’t usually bring his dog, Renzo, to his Buckhead office, because the Dalmatian tends to run laps, which can be distracting.
But Renzo came to work Friday. Renzo, apparently, wanted a chance to see a celebrity Dalmatian named April, who has her own wagon and eight horses to pull her around.
This is why, on a sunny Friday afternoon one could find Davis and Renzo, in a parking lot near the Shops Buckhead, ogling the spotted glory that is April, perched atop the Budweiser beer wagon, with eight Clydesdales up in front, and two men in green suits to take care of business.
“He wants to be the Budweiser dog,” said Davis of Renzo. Informed that the current Budweiser Dalmatian is a female, Davis added, “no wonder they’ve been making eye contact all this time.”
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Several hundred fans showed up Friday to snap pictures of the handsome draft horses that are a symbol of the Budweiser brand.
The eight one-ton horses, with flowers braided into their manes and silver-bedazzled tack polished to a mirror brightness, were trucked into Buckhead in three 18-wheelers.
“All the people, and all that’s going on all over Atlanta -- it’s just exciting,” said Newberry “Newbie” Murray, an interior designer who lives in Buckhead.
“I was hoping for a picture of Adam Levine, but I love those horses better,” she said.
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Credit: Steve Schaefer
Levine, of Maroon 5, will be the center of attention at the Super Bowl half-time show, but these showoffs -- Ivan, Phoenix, Lucky, Master, Merlin, J.D., Jack and Bandit -- were the center of attention Friday afternoon.
Along with April.
April stars in Budweiser’s newest television commercial made to air in the run-up to the big game. It was screened for an appreciative audience at nearby Irish pub Fado, which helped host the Clydesdale visit.
In April’s ad we see a close-up of her sweet face, her ears held aloft by a strong breeze, as Bob Dylan croons “Blowin’ in the Wind.”
When the camera pulls back we see a line of wind turbines in the background. The commercial is a subtle reference to the fact that Anheuser-Busch is contributing 175,000 megawatt-hours of clean energy credits to the city of Atlanta as a Super Bowl gift.
According to Angie Slaughter, vice president of sustainability for Anheuser-Busch, those credits are equal to the amount of electricity the metro area might use in an average week. They were purchased at an Oklahoma wind farm called Thunder Branch that’s twice the size of Manhattan.
According to the Clydesdales’ schedule, a single horse will visit Buckhead Saturday afternoon in the 3300 block of Piedmont Road, near the Twin Peaks sports bar.
For more information, go to www.budweiser.com
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