• WSJ (paid subscription required), Thursday, January 12, 2006 12:31 PM

To some, the combination of babes and beer has everlasting appeal.  And that seems to be the sentiment behind a new deal between giant brewer Anheuser-Busch’s Budweiser and Time Inc.’s Sports Illustrated.  The two venerable brands have teamed up for a promotion of SI’s wildly popular swimsuit issue, which will appear this year on Valentine’s Day. In addition to advertising in the issue and on SI.com, Budweiser will also host swimsuit-issue related parties in 50 different markets on Feb. 13, offering attendees the first issues off the press. Budweiser will also support the issue with in-store promotional materials featuring supermodel Molly Sims.  The deal reflects advertisers’ desire to get more exposure than simply buying pages in a magazine. "The more creative and fully integrated programs are going to get the dollars in the future," says Tony Ponturo, Anheuser-Busch's vice president for global media and sports marketing.

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