• Associated Press, Friday, March 31, 2006 11:30 AM

Beer marketing giant Anheuser Busch has hired iconoclastic filmmaker Spike Lee to direct a series of new commercials, but not for any of the brewer's brands. Instead, the campaign is designed to promote beer in general and is called, fittingly, "Here's to Beer." A-B is hoping the ads will help convince consumers to turn to beer as their drink of choice rather than wine, spirits and trendy cocktails, whose popularity in recent years has led to sagging beer sales. In the ads, some of which feature Lee himself, the following question is posed: with whom would you most like to drink a beer? Lee's answer is the late Brooklyn Dodger great, Jackie Robinson, while in another spot, "Sopranos" actor Michael Imperioli chooses Humphrey Bogart. An A-B spokesman said the company considers the ads, which were introduced last Sunday, a success and added that more than 200,000 people have visited the campaign's Web site since the ad premiered.

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