Sneak Peek: Making Of Super Bowl XLI Commercial

Sneak Peak: Making of Super Bowl XLI Commercial

Dale Earnhardt Jr. Stars in Budweiser Ad

With over 90 million viewers expected to tune in to this year's Super Bowl, advertisers are pulling out all the stops to make their campaign stand out. We were able to get a sneak peak at the making one of this year's humorous Budweiser ads, where the creative team known for creating "Bud Bowl," the "Whassup!" guys and the Budweiser frogs is bringing in NASCAR superstar Dale Earnhardt Jr. for a new spin on their spots.

For this year's ad called "Apocalypse," creators pulled out all the stops including fire-bombs, high-speed car chases, stunt jumps and helicopters to create a high-intensity, epic production. Shot near Lancaster, Calif., the scene is a barren desert depicting the end of the world. The four-time consecutive winner of NASCAR's Most Popular Driver award takes on an angry group of post-Apocalyptic mutants for his highly coveted Budweiser.

Anheuser-Busch - the game's largest advertiser - has 5 minutes of commercial space this year. To prepare they spend months crafting ad concepts, and out of dozens of ideas, the company commissions more than 30 ads to be produced. Then the creative directors, producers, and director go to work to make ads that last for seconds - but have us talking for weeks.

Anheuser-Busch has been producing Super Bowl spots since 1975 - and last year won its 8th consecutive USA TODAY "Ad Meter" victory.

Produced for Anheuser-Busch