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Anheuser-Busch is planning a marketing blitz behind Bud Light for the rest of the summer to counter a decline in the biggest U.S. beer brand.

Beginning this month, spending to support Bud Light will increase by tens of millions of dollars. The new spending includes on-air advertising and retail-level displays.

Anheuser-Busch, a division of Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev, will be airing 15 new Bud Light ads designed to ratchet up the humor.

Anheuser-Busch plans to invest heavily on TV shows including network prime time, late night and cable. Bud Light will get A-B’s strongest-ever exposure on football broadcasts.

"We’re trying to be very aggressive," Anheuser-Busch President Dave Peacock said in an interview.

Bud Light’s recent results have been limp as the economy pushes drinkers toward cheaper beers. The brand’s dollar sales stayed flat in the first six and a half months of 2009 compared to the same period last year, according to Information Resources Inc. But the beer’s sales fell 3.2 percent when measured in cases.

"You have an industry that people say is recession-resistant," Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer’s Insights, said last week. "But it’s really undergone some fairly large disruptions in 2009."

Imported beers such as Corona Extra and Heineken are struggling, and big domestic brands such as Miller Lite and Bud Light are under pressure.

That is troublesome for Anheuser-Busch, which relies heavily on Bud Light.

The brewer urged patience in the face of this drop. "The brand is healthy, although there’s room for improvement," Peacock said.

Bud Light’s current market effort is aimed at highlighting the beer’s "drinkability." For A-B, that means a balanced taste profile and refreshment, going down smooth and not filling you up.

Some distributors and analysts have questioned the commercials’ relevance, a sentiment shared by many readers commenting on the Post-Dispatch’s Lager Heads blog.

"The best thing to happen to Coors is the Bud Light ‘drinkability’ campaign," wrote one reader.

Anheuser-Busch acknowledges that the early "drinkability" ads were not as funny as viewers had come to expect from Bud Light faxless payday loans. But the company defends the campaign and says it is simply tilting the balance between humor and product characteristics a bit more toward laughs. Some of the work, from St. Louis-based advertising agency Cannonball, spoofs infomercials.

"The research, and all the discussion we had with the consumer, led us to the drinkability attribute," Peacock said. "The latest work kind of boils down the drinkability message and includes a lot of the humor that Bud Light is known for."

Meanwhile, the company is shipping thousands of Bud Light Lime racks and display bins. When Labor Day comes around, A-B wants to flood store displays and shelf space with "blue and green" — Bud Light and Bud Light Lime.

"This sounds like the old bold A-B," Beer Business Daily opined Monday. "This is the kind of bold initiative A-B is known for, but quite honestly we were wondering if those days were over. Bud Light is clearly soft and it seems (Anheuser-Busch InBev) is willing to spend to turn it around."

Still, Bud Light’s slippage may have more to do with economic jitters — and changing behavior by drinkers — than with advertising. These days, purchasing decisions are "more geared toward affordability," said one beverage analyst, who requested anonymity. "That’s what people want."

Bud Light faces the prospect of the first negative sales year in its 27-year history, according to Advertising Age. Ironically, Bud Light Lime may be partly to blame, since the beer attracted many Bud Light drinkers after hitting the market last year.

With the conventional Bud Light’s decline weighing on A-B’s results, the brewer hopes for strong showings from its Bud Light spin-offs. Bud Light Lime has obliged, chipping in more than $183 million in sales in measured channels this year.

Anheuser-Busch is also planning a splashy debut for Bud Light Golden Wheat, the newest Bud Light spin-off. It will have media support similar to Bud Light Lime’s launch last year. "It’s "going to be a significant launch," said Peacock.

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