Will Ferrell & Old Milwaukee: The Super Bowl Ad You Didn't See

While the rest of the nation was going on about all the celebrities in the Super Bowl ads they were watching, viewers in Nebraska (and seemingly only those in North Platte) got a special low-budget Will Ferrell ad for Old Milwaukee beer.

The clip is nothing like the multi-million-dollar ads from last night. It certainly didn’t make it to any lists of top brands for the evening. (Networked Insights says Doritos, Budweiser, and Coke were tops by share of voice.) In fact, Ferrell doesn’t even get to say anything before the ad cuts off.

The video has also made an appearance on the Funny or Die Tumblr (Funny or Die is Ferrell’s comedy website) and is getting some pick-up online. But it’s not part of the collection of Madison Avenue gems on the Old Milwaukee website. (And, yes, we looked and this is one of the best versions of the ad available online.)

Old Milwaukee ads starring Ferrell started turning up in December. They’re all lo-def, odd, and completely in keeping with the comedian’s sense of humor. So, in a way, they also fit in nicely with the usual Old Milwaukee ads.

Since it doesn’t look like the beer company has put much thought into its marketing over the past decade or so, and E! Online says Ferrell is doing this for free, perhaps the Old Milwaukee folks saw it as a “why the heck not?” kind of situation. Let’s hope they did because, from a marketing standpoint, these ads don’t really entice you into popping open a can of the stuff.