Anheuser-Busch, the parent company to Budweiser, isn’t so happy that Denzel Washington’s alcoholic pilot character in the movie Flight drinks Bud as his beer of choice.
Anheuser-Busch, the parent company to Budweiser, isn’t so happy that Denzel Washington’s alcoholic pilot character in the movie Flight drinks Bud as his beer of choice.
In fact, Anheuser-Busch has asked Paramount Pictures Corp. to remove the brand entirely or skew the logo in the film. “We would never condone the misuse of our products, and have a long history of promoting responsible drinking and preventing drunk driving,” Budweiser vice-president Rob McCarthy told AP in a statement.
Budweiser isn’t the only beverage Washington’s character William “Whip” Whitaker partakes of in the film. He also downs various brands of vodka, including Stolichnaya, better known as Stoli. Parent company William Grant & Sons has also said it did not license its vodka for use in the film.
Meanwhile, Flight is proving a box-office success and trademark laws mean that Anheuser-Busch likely can’t do anything more than release a statement condemning the unfortunate product placement. The film debuted in the No. 2 spot at the box office in its opening weekend (behind Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph) and it had already grossed $24.9 million in its opening days.