Memories are weird. You’d swear you saw it. You remember the snowy farm, the majestic Clydesdale, the romantic tension, and then—pffft. A loud, poorly timed blast of gas that ruins the moment. It’s one of the most famous "lost" pieces of media in Super Bowl history. But if you try to find the Budweiser horse commercial fart on YouTube today, you're going to run into a wall of confusion and grainy parodies.
It never actually aired during the Super Bowl. Seriously.
This is a classic case of the Mandela Effect meeting early 2000s viral marketing. Back then, "viral" didn't mean a TikTok trend; it meant a video file being passed around on LimeWire or attached to a chain email that probably gave your computer a virus. People talk about the "farting horse" ad like it’s a core memory of 2003 or 2004, right alongside Janet Jackson’s wardrobe malfunction or the Apple silhouette ads. Yet, if you look at the official rosters of Anheuser-Busch's big-game spots, it’s nowhere to be found.
What actually happened in the "lost" ad?
The premise was simple and, honestly, kinda low-brow for Budweiser’s usual high-budget aesthetic. A guy is trying to pick up a girl. He brings her out to a snowy field to show off his majestic Clydesdale. He’s got a candle, he’s trying to be romantic, and he lifts the horse's tail to show off... something? Then, the horse lets out a massive fart that ignites from the candle, essentially turning the Clydesdale into a four-legged flamethrower.
It’s crude. It’s silly. It’s exactly what a 14-year-old in 2004 would find hilarious.
But here is the kicker: it wasn't an official Super Bowl commercial. It was a "spec" ad or a "banned" spot that was leaked intentionally—or perhaps just circulated by fans—to generate buzz without the $2.3 million price tag of a 30-second slot. Anheuser-Busch has a long history of filming dozens of concepts and only letting the best (and cleanest) ones hit the airwaves. The "farting horse" was a casualty of the cutting room floor that found a second life on the wild west of the early internet.
Why do we all remember seeing it on TV?
Our brains are liars. We see a clip online, then we see a real Budweiser ad during the game, and suddenly, in our heads, they merge. This happens all the time with iconic branding. Because the Clydesdales are the undisputed kings of Super Bowl Sunday, any video featuring them feels like it must have been a Super Bowl ad.
There's also the "Ref" commercial from 2003. That one was real. It featured a Clydesdale playing football and a zebra acting as the referee. It was funny, wholesome, and expensive. When people think back to "that funny horse commercial," their brains often mash the real "Ref" ad with the unofficial "Fart" ad.
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Advertising experts like Bob Garfield have often noted that Budweiser's strategy involves creating a "halo effect." They want you to associate the brand with humor and Americana so strongly that you credit them for things they didn't even do. In this case, the fart ad became an urban legend that did more marketing work for free than some of their paid spots did for millions.
The dark art of the "Banned" commercial
In the early 2000s, "banned" was the ultimate clickbait. If a brand could convince you that a commercial was "too hot for TV" or "too gross for the Super Bowl," you were ten times more likely to download that .mpeg file.
Anheuser-Busch wasn't the only one doing this. Remember the Miller Lite "Catfight" ads? Or the various GoDaddy spots that were "rejected" by networks? It was a calculated risk. By letting a crude ad like the Budweiser horse commercial fart "leak," the brand gets to keep its prestigious, family-friendly image on NBC or CBS while still appealing to the "Frat Boy" demographic that buys a lot of domestic light beer.
It’s a win-win. They get the edge without the FCC fines.
Interestingly, the actual origin of the footage is often attributed to a creative agency called DDB Chicago. They were the masterminds behind the "Whassup!" guys and the Budweiser Frogs. They knew how to capture the cultural zeitgeist. Even if the higher-ups at Budweiser knew they couldn't air a horse passing gas during a family-oriented broadcast, they knew the value of having that clip exist in the world.
Why the Clydesdales matter so much
To understand why a farting horse caused such a stir, you have to understand the reverence people have for these animals. The Budweiser Clydesdales aren't just mascots; they are a symbol of post-Prohibition American recovery. They first appeared in 1933 as a gift to August Busch Sr. to celebrate the repeal of the 18th Amendment.
They are treated like royalty. They have their own traveling "Dalmatian" companions. They have strict height and weight requirements. They even have their own "grooming" standards that make some Hollywood actors look like slobs.
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So, when a video comes out showing one of these majestic creatures acting like a college student after a bean burrito, it’s a massive subversion of expectations. It’s "funny" because it’s "wrong." It’s the juxtaposition of the most elegant horses in the world doing the least elegant thing possible.
The legal and social fallout
While there weren't massive lawsuits over the farting horse, it did spark a conversation about "brand dignity." Some purists felt that even letting such a parody exist—official or not—tarnished the legacy of the horses. But sales figures usually tell a different story. In the mid-2000s, Bud Light was dominating the market, and this kind of irreverent humor was the fuel for that fire.
It also paved the way for modern "viral" ads. Today, brands like Ryan Reynolds' Maximum Effort or Liquid Death thrive on the exact kind of "is this real?" energy that the horse ad pioneered.
We live in a world where "leaked" content is a primary marketing pillar. Back then, it was an accident or a daring experiment.
How to spot the fakes today
If you go looking for the Budweiser horse commercial fart now, you'll find plenty of "re-creations." There are CGI versions, low-quality uploads that claim to be the original, and even fan-made animations.
One easy way to tell if you're looking at the "authentic" leaked spot is the cinematography. The real leaked ad (often referred to as "The Warmth of the Season" or simply "The Fart") looks exactly like the high-budget spots from that era. It has that specific 35mm film look, warm color grading, and professional lighting. If it looks like it was shot on a GoPro, it's a fake.
Another clue is the music. Budweiser spots from that era almost always used sweeping, orchestral scores or very specific acoustic guitar tracks that felt "Americana." The leaked ad used a similar score to build the "romantic" tension before the punchline.
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The legacy of the horse fart
It sounds ridiculous to talk about the "legacy" of a fart joke, but in the world of advertising, this was a pivot point. It proved that a brand's identity isn't just what they put on the TV screen. It's what people say about them in the breakroom the next morning.
Even twenty years later, people are still searching for this clip. They are still arguing about whether it aired. That is a level of brand recall that most companies would kill for.
It also reminds us of a time before the internet was "solved." There was a period where you could find things online that felt like secrets. The Budweiser horse commercial fart was one of those secrets. It was a digital "did you hear?" that connected people through sheer, dumb humor.
Actionable steps for the curious
If you’re trying to track down the history of these "banned" ads or understand how they impact modern marketing, here is what you can actually do:
Check the Museum of Television and Radio (now the Paley Center) archives. They often keep records of "spec" ads that were produced but never aired. It’s a goldmine for seeing the ideas that were too weird for the general public.
Look into the work of DDB Chicago from 2002 to 2005. Researching their creative directors from that era will give you a better idea of how they pushed the boundaries of the "Budweiser Brand."
Study the Mandela Effect in Advertising. There are dozens of commercials people "remember" that never existed, like the Jiffy Peanut Butter (it was always Jif) or the specific ending to the "Owl and the Tootsie Pop" ad.
Verify the source. Next time you see a "banned" ad, look for the watermark. Genuine spec ads often have "Property of [Agency]" or time-codes burned into the bottom of the frame. If it’s clean, it’s usually a deliberate viral leak.
The Budweiser horse commercial fart remains a fascinating footnote in the history of the Super Bowl. It’s a reminder that sometimes, the things a brand doesn't air are more memorable than the ones they do. Whether it was a prank, a leaked spec ad, or just a very well-executed piece of early viral content, it succeeded in its primary goal: making us remember the brand, even if for all the wrong reasons.