On a Spring Break holiday in England, hundreds of people gather on Cooper Hill to chase a roll of cheese; nothing comes between those people and their runaway cheese. At a wedding attended by Peyton Manning, Shane Gillis and Post Malone, the setting was similar, but in this case, nothing would come between the people and their Bud Light.
Most of the Marist community focused on Seattle Seahawks kicker Jason Myers during the Super Bowl, while a smaller group knowingly waited for halftime, not for Bad Bunny, but for a 60-second Bud Light ad. There, millions of people watched two Marist Red Foxes’ years of work and dedication to their careers come to fruition.
If you asked any advertising student at Marist what the pinnacle of their advertising career would be, the answer nine times out of 10 would be a Super Bowl spot. For Dylan Brackett, who graduated from Marist in 2020, advertising did not just become a career path; it became his life.
Bracket has been at Anomaly, which won Bud Light’s business in 2022. Brackett and his partner are no strangers to Bud Light briefs. Brackett calls Bud Light one of those iconic advertising spots, similar to those of Nike. Ads that have become a staple of American advertising.
“I remember driving home with my dad from baseball practice and we were listening to the Real Man of Genius jingle, the real men and we were just cracking up,” said Brackett. “It is just one of those things where it is so iconic, such an amazing piece of advertising.”
Since joining Anomaly in 2022, Brackett and copywriter Maxwell Eberle have been partners. In their time together, they have worked with various clients like Crown Royal, Topgolf and, of course, Bud Light.
Brackett and Eberle officially entered the Bud Light world, working with the brand during the UFC season. For the past two Super Bowls, the pair has tried repeatedly to create the Bud Light spot for the big game.
After constant idea sessions and years of ebbs and flows, Brackett and his partner came up with the idea for this year’s Super Bowl spot about a year ago, working very closely with Bud Light’s team.
Brackett’s personal role as the art director changes over time, from developing the idea on paper to the production we see during the Super Bowl. The process starts with creating and drafting different ideas for the brief, writing scripts and then developing images of what they want the creative execution to look like.
“The art director really kind of decides the vibe of the sport and how it is going to look and how it is gonna feel,” said Brackett.
Curating the advertisement using influences, Brackett then gets on calls with directors, showing them the script and discussing the vision. From there, the directors either reject or accept and send them back a treatment.
Through candid conversations and trust, Max and Brackett won their first Super Bowl spot. Their spot ‘Keg’ for Bud Light uses influences from the Cheese Roll race in England. As they headed into pre-production, Brackett’s role as an art director began to ramp up.
Brackett focused on small details that in the beginning stages seemed irrelevant, but as the ad started to come to life before his eyes, he had to answer the questions about the theme of the wedding to be, should it be black tie and all the little details that started coming to the forefront. The more questions asked, the more the reality of making a Super Bowl ad started to hit Brackett.
The idea statement for Bud Light was to show what lengths people will go for the beer. Their final idea for the “Keg” came considerably late in the game.
“Around September or something, the idea first got rolling, pardon the pun,” said Brackett. “It came from just boiling it down to the most simple kind of narrative, right of ‘What happens if the keg, their Bud Light, leaves? They chase it.’”
Saying the idea out loud was very much a “Damn, it’s that simple” moment. The added layer of stunts and celebrity cameos is what made it Super Bowl worthy.
The 60-second spot features former NFL quarterback Peyton Manning, comedian Shane Gillis and musician Post Malone. The three are on Bud Light’s payroll and were a part of the brief to begin with. The celebrities did affect much of the creative process for Brackett; instead, he approached the brief like any other.
While finalizing the script, Brackett started to think about how they could incorporate the celebrities’ personalities, thinking about ways they could let Shane Gillis be Shane Gillis and crack some jokes.
When production wrapped up, and the ad was finalized and shipped off to the clients, Brackett could not help but ask himself. “Are people going to hate it?” he wondered. Developing the same ad for a year, re-watching it constantly, it is hard not to get sick of your own work.
When Feb. 8th, 2026, rolled around, it was time for Brackett’s year of work to finally be brought into millions of homes. Brackett invited some friends over for a Super Bowl party, watching the game, but also waiting for his work. He knew exactly when the ad would run, right before Bad Bunny’s halftime show.
As the ad ended and Bad Bunny started, Brackett’s phone started to sound off, receiving shoutouts on Instagram and LinkedIn and text messages congratulating him, all loving his work. This moment became a pinch-me moment for him.
Brackett has seen his ads come to life before, but nothing measures up to the Super Bowl.
“It is one of those things where the work that I’ve made has never been talked about at this level, and so I’d be like scrolling on Instagram and somebody would be like, best ads of the Super Bowl or something like that, and it’s like, holy crap, they’re talking about the thing I made,” said Brackett.
Unprompted conversations and interactions with the ad made all the hard work worth it for Brackett and his team. The brief for Bud Light’s next Super Bowl will drop soon and Brackett looks to fight his way back to advertising’s biggest stage (and footballs).
Brackett praises Anomaly for being a meritocracy, where you don’t need to be at the top to voice a good idea. If your idea is better, it is that simple: your idea is getting made.
Right now, Brackett is preparing for the 2027 NFL regular season, making 15-second spots for Bud Light that will be seen each quarter and time out. From switching into the Marist advertising program after the idea of having a visual arts major became daunting and limited, Brackett is now a part of advertising’s biggest stage.
Advertising slowly became a passion for Brackett at Marist. A spark to the creative fire was Professor Joanna D’Avanzo’s Intro to Strategic Advertising class.
“Her classes introduced me to the portfolio development process and introduced me to how briefs are done in actual work,” said Brackett. “It is something where every time I am on a brief, I am reminded of this class.”
Brackett remembers his time in Lowell Thomas, dividing into agency teams, holding different ideation sessions, and reporting back to the creative director, in this case, D’Avanzo.
Attending a career fair held at the Marist executive center in New York City as a senior, Brackett walked in with a print ad he created in hand and began talking with the agencies that were in attendance. All of them told him he needed a portfolio to get his career started.
Chicago Portfolio School caught Brackett’s attention, a solid one-year program that allowed a bunch of quick workshop iterations and the ability to create a book in a short amount of time, preparing him for life after school.
During his time at Marist, Brackett interned with local Hudson Valley companies, creating flyers and marketing for Saint Luke’s in Newburgh and researching strategy and data analytics for Pattern for Progress. No fancy advertising agency work, but something to get him started, and that is all he needed.
“I think that so much of advertising is thinking about things and just really trying to wrap your mind around these briefs, and so having a diverse kind of serious thought is completely and totally incredibly helpful,” said Brackett. “Both of those internships, while not being on Madison Avenue, completely helped me.”
Unsure of what the COVID-19 pandemic would turn out to be, Brackett packed his bags and moved in with his brother in Chicago. As September rolled around and lockdown was still in place, Brackett made the most of his time during the pandemic, fully putting himself into his online portfolio school experience.
When the time came, he packed his bags for Brooklyn in search of a job, landing his first job at Havas. Havas created a steppingstone for Brackett; he met great people, but it was not quite what he dreamed of. His first role was making mailers for Citibank — not ideal for him after making fun and exciting activation campaigns in school.
After six months at Havas, Brackett took his student book and started looking for more work.
“I was on Twitter at the time and followed a lot of advertising people on Twitter and just kind of found a tweet from my now co-worker Kelsey, who was like, ‘Hey, Anomaly needs a junior talent.’ I liked the tweet, she found my profile and sent it to our [Anomaly’s] recruiter, Jenny, who hooked me up with my partner Max, my copywriter and it has been absolutely amazing since then.”
From Brackett, working on creative briefs with his Professors as the creative directors at Marist, to now working at Anomaly and creating NFL ads, he has one piece of advice for aspiring advertisers.
“It’s really something where you need to believe in your level. At least tell yourself, believe in your level of taste, believe in your level of humor, understand that you can do this,” said Brackett.
Brackett is surrounded by the best of the best in advertising, with genuine friendships and relationships surrounding him. Marist alum Jason Myers was not the only star of LX; Dylan Brackett was right there. Between a Myers field goal and a Bad Bunny halftime show, and there was ‘Keg.’
Edited by Ben Leeds
Photos courtesy of Dylan Brackett
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