Budweiser’s Super Bowl commercial is a beautiful tribute to its immigrant co-founder

For the past few Super Bowls, Budweiser’s commercials have been more light-hearted and sometimes emotional, thanks to those beloved Clydesdales. This year, however, Budweiser put out a commercial that touches on its origin story that’s also pretty relevant today, given the U.S.’s current turmoil over immigration and refugees.

The commercial shows the journey of Budweiser’s co-inventor, Adolphus Busch, as he travels from Germany to America perilously by boat, and gets questioned by a friend about why he would leave Germany. “I want to brew beer,” Busch says in English. From there, we see him entering America, but he faces more tribulations, including getting yelled at by angry locals who tell him to “go back home.” He eventually reaches St. Louis, the home of Budweiser, where he meets Eberhard Anheuser, who would later become his business partner. The commercial ends with the message, “When nothing stops your dream, this is the beer we drink.”

Obviously, the commercial was produced months before the president’s controversial executive order, and AdAge pointed out that the timing may seem like it’s a response to that:

Although the 60-second ad by Anomaly might be perceived by some viewers as making a subtle political statement, that was not the intent. Instead the ad, called “Born the Hard Way,” is meant to plug into themes of hard work and the pursuit of dreams against tough odds, according to Anheuser-Busch InBev executives.

But the message is evergreen: Give immigrants a chance to live a better life and chase their dreams, and they might go on to do great things.

(h/t AdAge)