Real Men of Genius

Real Men of Genius is a popular long-running humorous series of one-minute-long American radio advertisements for Bud Light beer created by Bob Winter, a copywriter at DDB Chicago. Each sixty-second ad pays mock tribute to an "unsung hero". The series began in 1999 and was originally called Real American Heroes. The name was changed after the 9/11 attacks, as Anheuser-Busch felt that they could not morally continue to use the term "hero" in that context after so many people had performed what many felt to be genuine acts of heroism.Fact|date=September 2008 Over 100 installments in the series have been produced.Fact|date=September 2008 Winter's campaign has since become the most award-winning radio campaign in the history of advertising.Fact|date=September 2008 Television versions have also been produced of some of these spots beginning in 2003. The first two TV versions were "Mr. Footlong Hot Dog Inventor" and "Mr. Really Bad Toupee Wearer".

The ads feature an announcer (Pete Stacker) and an unctuous rock singer who echoes the announcer's sentiments over piano music. The rock singer's vocals are by original Survivor lead singer Dave Bickler. The music was composed by Sam Struyk and Sandy Torano at Scandal Music, Chicago. A female gospel-style chorus is also heard in many of the ads.

The popularity of the series, which is seen as a parody of 1980s beer advertising (including Budweiser's own from that era)Fact|date=September 2008, led to many of the commercials being traded on peer to peer file sharing networks.Fact|date=September 2008

Starting in 2006 some of the commercials were recorded as 30 second spots. This was done to accommodate the desire of Clear Channel Radio and other radio companies to air shorter commercial breaks.Fact|date=September 2008

In late 2006, Anheuser-Busch sponsored a comedy tour titled "Real Men of Comedy" starring John Heffron, Joe Rogan, and Charlie Murphy. This tour featured the announcer and singer from the Real Men of Genius commercials performing several of their famous commercials at the beginning of the show.

Influence on popular culture

Parodies of the series have been created, including:

* The George Washington University Law School Law Revue parodied the ad with a version called "Real Men of Law School."" [http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2008/03/real-men-of-geo.html]
* At one point in the movie Meet The Spartans, a parody is done called “Mr. Warmongering Latent Homosexual”
* Juxtaposition, a Virginia Tech men's a cappella group parodied the popular ad with their version called "Real Hokies of Genius".
* The online film site atomfilms.com features a video entitled "Real men of the Empire" [http://www.atomfilms.com/af/content/real_men_empire] , in which a fictional "Corellian Ale" company in the Star Wars universe pays tribute to "Mr. Death Star Gunner".
* Sea World plays parodies of the "Real Men of Genius" commercials during a few of their shows - these too are produced with the same voice actors and have the same lyrics (except of course the Mr. Genius). And during some employee training videos, certain job positions are presented in the commercial format.Fact|date=September 2008
* A Minneapolis radio station, after 9/11, parodied the ads with real F(bleep)ing S(bleep)bags, featuring Osama Bin Laden as the subject.
* Radio shock jock Mancow parodied "Real Men of Genius" on his radio talk show, calling it "Mr. 18-Wheeler Mother Trucker."
* Radio talk show host Glenn Beck parodies the ads as "Real American A-Holes".
* In his latest CD, "Never Scared" Chris Rock spoofs this with "Real People of Ignorance". There were 2 installments of this: "Mr. Friend of a Rap Star" and "Ms. Girl With A Tattoo On Her Pussy".
* "Real Otaku Heroes," celebrating bizarre parts of anime fandom. [http://www.realotakuheroes.com/songs/songs.html]
* Real Men of Genius have also recorded parodies of these ads for the Bob and Tom Show.
* Rep. Mark Green, the Republican candidate for Governor of Wisconsin in 2006, had a radio political attack ad called "Wisconsin Men of Greed" which questioned Governor Jim Doyle's tax policies. The political ad used the same style as the Real Men of Genius ads, though with a different announcer (Doug Jeffers) and singer than the Bud Light campaign [http://www.votemarkgreen.com/site/apps/nl/content.asp?c=klIZIhN3JyE&b=2015079&ct=2919447] .
*An ad series called "Real Scouts of Genius" was produced by members of the staff of Yawgoog Scout Reservation sporadically since 2006.
* Other political attack ads in Minnesota and Texas also took on an imitative theme of the Real Men of Genius ads in the closing days of the 2006 midterm election campaign [http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-11-02-negative-ads_x.htm] [http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/4301786.html] .
*Voice actors Vic Mignogna and Steven Blum have started producing "Real Fans of Genius", which parody stereotypical anime fans.
*The G4 television show "X-Play" once parodied this segment using people who have done bad things in designing video gaming; the segment was called "Real Buttholes of Gaming", and two of these aired in the same episode, which aired in the summer of 2005.The singers of "Real Men of Genius" also make appearances at professional sporting events to perform tributes to home teams and fans in the commercials' format. Known appearances include:
*Bank of America Stadium, with a song dedicated to all the Carolina Panthers fans.
*Reliant Stadium, dedicating a song to all Houston Texans fans.
*Invesco Field at Mile High, with a song for Denver Broncos fans.
*Edward Jones Dome, with a song for St. Louis Rams fans.
* Safeco Field on May 18, 2007, where they performed a song dedicated to Seattle Mariners fans and the city of Seattle. Earlier that same day, they performed two songs live on The Men's Room early afternoon radio program on Seattle's local rock station, KISW-FM.
* LP Field in Nashville where they paid tribute to Coach Jeff Fisher's headset as well as the Titans fans.
* On 93.7 The Arrow a classic rock radio station in Houston, Texas where they paid tribute to radio morning show hosts "Dean and Rog"
* On April 18, 2007, they performed an ode to Sacramento Kings fans referring to them as "fans of genius" due to their well-known loyalty to their team, and willingness to stay until the end of the game. The mock-tribute was also meant to poke fun at the Los Angeles Lakers (who were playing the Kings that night), as Lakers' fans are stereotypically believed to be more interested in talking on their cell-phones and leaving early to beat the traffic, than actually watching the game.
* The Real Men of Genius singers did a song for Sportsradio 610am in Houston named "Mr. Preposterous Trade Proposer". This song was aired quite frequently for several months.
* A television commercial advertising the fourth episode of Meerkat Manor's third season parodies the Real Men of Genius ads.
* Following the widespread banning of dodgeball from schools nationwide, and Rod Ryan's, a Houston disc jockey for 94.5 The Buzz, proactive formation of the Houston Dodgeball Association (HoDA), a Real Men of Genius commercial was made saluting Mr Dodgeball Resurrector.
* Real Estate Blogger Dr. Housing Bubble writes a recurring set of articles entitled " [http://www.doctorhousingbubble.com/category/real-homes-of-genius/ Real Homes of Genius] ".
* In the browser based MMO, Urban Dead, players have taken to sending out radio transmissions parodying Real Men of Genius, except about annoying players in game, such as Combat Revivers
*In 2004 Knotts Scary Farm presented audio commercials of "Real Men of Genius" before their Spoof show that is they present every year making fun of the previous year. The commercials were about the employees working at Knotts Scary Farm.
* In Sept of 2008, members of the Cincinnati Bengals message boards (Jungle Noise) created a parody celebrating that teams much maligned fans. http://home.ntelos.net/~blades/BudLightPresents.mp3

External links

* [http://budlight.whipnet.com/ The Original Real Men of Genius Site]
* [http://thefuntimesguide.com/2004/10/bud_light_real.php/ Collection of Real Men of Genius Commercials]
* [http://www.budlightbirthday.com/ Bud Light presents Real Men of Genius Birthday Greeting (official site)]