It was described as "moving" and "powerful" by the obsequious Fox critics, and "obscene" by my furious upstairs neighbour who called me straight after because he regarded the spot as incitement to war with Iran, and knows I write about such things and so it was of course my fault.

Pass the sick bag, Alice. I was too stunned by the spot to really take in the full import of a beer company waving off "our boys" (and girls) to battle.

Santa Claus, Easter Bunny, Decent Left.

Group shot!!!

Either Hatfield is clueless or I am. It seemed clear to me that the soldiers in the ad were being welcome home.

Hatfield's so far left, he may actually believe his own BS about American Imperialism.

What's the matter with you right-wingers? Have you all been blinded by the neo-cons and the Zionists? Don't you understand that this was an ad by Anheuser BUSCH?

I'm with David. It never occurred to me that the soldiers were going off to war. The ad is as much about rejecting Vietnam as anything.

Third vote for soldiers coming home.

Saw it, teared up, didn't want to kill anybody afterwards. So I guess it must not have worked.

The Vietnam-era nostalgics are probably going to have to wait a long time to see any company make a commercial that shows a bunch of people at an airport sptting on U.S. soliders as the return home, which seems to be the unsaid intent of those shouting at the rafters over the Anheuser-Busch Super Bowl ad (and somehown I don't remember any of these people yelping a year ago when it came out that A-B was producing ads targeting the gay community to get them to buy more of their beer. They were a good company back then, as opposed to the war-mongering SOBs they obviously are now).

Third for coming home. Didn't even cross my mind they were going out.

D-mned weasel Guardianista. And I mean it.

I didn't take a position on whether they were coming home or heading out. I'd cheer them either way.

I stopped buying Budweiser after the flatulent horse ad last year. Time to reverse that.

I thought coming home too, but thinking about it, it was probably going out....point is, that wasn't the point, which is why it was kind of ambiguous. The idea that it's an endorsement of going into Iran? Ridiculous! All that man's outrage does is illustrate how screwed up his thinking is. The point is that these men and women will fight and die for us, no matter the cause. They will die in Iraq, and they will die in accidents rending aid to tsunami victims too. And does this man not know that soldiers will always be shipping out? They're still shipping them off to Japan, Germany, and Korea too. War is over there too. But again, not the point. Anyone upset with the ad is a fool.

I also vote for coming home. Going out makes less sense in light of the context. Leave it to a bunch of Europeans to see troops and think they have to be _going_ to war. I find it interesting that Hatfield is amazed at the concept of a brewer saluting the very people who protect the country of its origin. he needs to look at British advertising in the First and Second World Wars.

Well, hey, I thought they were coming home too! Now at least I feel like less of an un-nuanced Yankee idiot.

Another vote for coming home and I also immediately thought of the contrast to the Vietnam era.

I wonder what position Stefano Hatfield takes on the McCoys.

As long as they keep producing Stefano Hatfields, we may be able to rejoice secure in the knowledge that 'there may not always be an England.'

I missed the commercial, I think I was busy making sure the bulgogi(Korean barbecued beef on skewers) weren't getting burned.

BTW, the current Gussie Busch(August Busch IV) is a baseball-hating girlyman who sold the Cardinals and backed Kerry for President.

I bounce from back and forth from bemusement to anger when I read drivel like this. The left is completely clueless.
I saw this ad at my sister's house Sunday evening. My wife was clearly moved by it, as was I. My sister - a liberal - said she wished Vietnam vets could haven been treated this way. I was amazed and had to hold my tongue. She had voted for John Kerry, the man who returned from Vietnam and called all of his fellow servicemen (and by extension himself) war criminals. In that poisoned atmosphere 30 years ago, how could it have been possible for returning vets to be treated with anything but indifference or plain contempt?

When do pitchers and catchers report?

I came back from Vietnam, in June 1969. No Problemo for me, but maybe I was too stupid to notice.

Is there agreement on this thread that it is important whether the soldiers were coming and not going? I don't get the significance of this distinction.

h: I don't think its important, but while watching it I simply assumed they were coming home. Rewatching it, I still think that they're heading out of the airport, but it's not clear. One thing that is interesting in rewatching is that the "uniforms" are not real uniforms and are plain with no rank or unit insignia.