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Friday, February 07, 2025

Anheuser-Busch drops orange and blue Budweiser cans

While thousands of fans will be sporting orange and blue this Saturday, a matching beer won't be part of the attire.

The Anheuser-Busch InBev's "Fan Cans" promotion was launched to sell cans of Bud Light in universities' colors this football season.

According to Anheuser-Busch's Web site, fans can choose from 26 different color combinations in packs of 24 or 30 cans.

But orange and blue beer cans won't be part of the line-up this college football season because Anheuser-Busch is dropping the campaign in several communities that have objected to it, including UF.

"We were among the 25 or so schools that asked Anheuser-Busch not to conduct this program," said UF spokeswoman Janine Sikes.

The Southeastern Conference president, the University of Georgia and the University of Michigan were among those who wrote letters to Anheuser-Busch objecting to the campaign, she said.

"We were very concerned about the advertising campaign's influence on underage drinkers at the University of Florida," she said.

Sikes said several students have died in alcohol-related incidents, and the bulk of UF's student body is not 21 years old.

"We also maintain that they don't have the legal right to use the school colors," she said.

Though the cans would not have a UF logo, the use of the orange and blue colors would be an infringement of UF's trademark, she said.

Brett Fuller, a transportation engineering graduate student, said he thinks underage students will drink regardless of what's on the beer can.

"Though it would be fun to throw an orange and blue beer can at opposing fans," he said.

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Will Lisska, an urban and regional planning graduate student, said the orange and blue cans probably wouldn't have affected his decision to purchase Bud Light over a different brand of beer.

"I guess for things like game day it would be nice, but it's still Bud Light," he said.

Lisska went to Vanderbilt University for his undergraduate degree and said the school's view on underage drinking was similar there.

"One of the deans came in to my general chemistry class to talk about how dangerous we were being with our bodies, and how 20 shots in one night was not acceptable," he said.

He said he understands the administration's standpoint but thinks underage drinking at UF will persist.

"It's really just a part of college."

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