This past week has been rather exciting for my husband and me! A few weeks ago, Dan was commissioned to write a song for a possible placement on a Budweiser PSA commercial. He got the request while he was out of town with the non-profit he works for, Youth Frontiers. That night, in his hotel room in some small town, he sat down and wrote a catchy little tune called “When You Come Home.” The publishing/licensing agency loved it, the ad agency loved it, and when Budweiser heard it, they loved it too!
The next thing we knew, the ad “Friends Are Waiting” was live and within 7 days it hit over 15 million views! It even made it into the “most popular” category on YouTube’s homepage for a day! It’s been so fun to see so many people not only watching the commercial, but seemingly loving it’s message and music as well. While most of the views and press related to the video have focused on the message and video itself, a few of them have mentioned the artist behind the music (links below). This has been great for getting Dan’s name out there! It’s been amazing to watch the hits on his website climb and his social media explode with activity.
After I got done with my class yesterday, Dan called me to say that a few of our local TV networks wanted to do a news segment on him and the commercial. So exciting! He then proceeded to tell me that they wanted to do so at our house…that night! Whoooo!! With the craziness of the past few weeks, our house has been more than just a little messy…it could even be said that it’s been an absolute disaster. So, I few home on my bike and we made quick work of that mess in order to present the Twin Cities metro with a clean view of our home and yard (the later as been completely destroyed by chickens as of late). With 45 minutes of my arrival at home, I was watching Dan be interviewed by one of the local news anchors.
And an hour or so later, another anchor and camera guy showed up. It was quite fun, and my house looked quite clean, I must say!
Overall, it’s been a fun week for us. The news reports referred to all this as Dan’s “big break.” While we’d love for that to be the case, we’ll see how it will all play out in the end. What we do know, however, is that this is a definite step in the right direction. Hooray for that!
Press Related to the Commercial & Dan’s Music:
- Minneapolis musician Dan Rodriguez warms seven million hearts with moving PSA featuring a loving Labrador, The Current
- Budweiser Friends Are Waiting, TV Commercial Songs
- What’s The Song in Budweiser’s Be(er) Responsible Day Commercial, Big Frog 104
- Budweiser’s viral ad may be Minnesota musician’s big break, My Fox 9 Twin Cities
- Budweiser spot putting Minneapolis singer-songwriter in the spotlight, St. Paul Pioneer Press
- The Budweiser Dog Ad’s Minn. Connection, CBS/WCCO