Budweiser buys America.

Somewhere, Woody Guthrie is restless.

At first, I thought such self-indulgent pandering couldn't possibly be anything other than a joke. But, now, with enough 'credible' sources reporting on this, it does actually appear that Anheuser-Bush Inbev's pseudo-patriotic, tone-deaf marketing ploy is a true thing.

Anheuser-Busch InBev —not American-owned but a Belgian-owned beverage conglomerate— plans to re-brand Budweiser, its flagship light lager beer with the name ... "America" during the summer months, beginning in late May and continuing through the election season in November.

Budweiser wants to cement its reputation as the quintessentially American beer, by re-branding itself simply as "America" this summer.

The change of label has been submitted for approval to the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, according to Ad Age, which first spotted the filing.

The proposed new label will also give increased prominence to the Latin phrase which appears on the American seal: 'E Pluribus Unum" — meaning "One out of many."

Budweiser wants to further capitalize on the patriotic fervor of the Olympic summer by using the phrases: "From the redwood forest to the Gulf stream waters this land was made for you and me" and "indivisible since 1776."

— Business Insider: 10 May 2016.

Will AB-IB also rebrand its lighter-than-light lager, Bud Light, as America Light, or, as one Twitter wag phrased it, 'Murica?

Budweiser buys America. Befits the times.

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* This land is your land, this land is my land
From the California to the Staten New York Island,
From the Redwood Forest, to the Gulf stream waters,
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking that ribbon of highway
And saw above me that endless skyway,
And saw below me the golden valley, I said:
This land was made for you and me.

I roamed and rambled and followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts,
And all around me, a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.

Was a high wall there that tried to stop me
A sign was painted said: Private Property,
But on the back side it didn't say nothing —
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun come shining, then I was strolling
In wheat fields waving and dust clouds rolling;
The voice was chanting as the fog was lifting:
This land was made for you and me.

One bright sunny morning in the shadow of the steeple
By the Relief Office I saw my people —
As they stood hungry, I stood there wondering if
This land was made for you and me.

— Woody Guthrie, 1940.

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