Real Men of Genius is a popular long-running humorous series of American radio advertisements for Bud Light beer created by copywriter Bob Winter. Each ad is sixty seconds in length. The series began in 1999 and was originally called "Real American Heroes". The name was changed after the 9/11 attacks, as the Budweiser corporation felt that they could not continue to use the term "hero" in that context after so many people had performed genuine acts of heroism. As of 2005, over 100 installments in the series have been produced. Winter's campaign has since become the most award-winning radio campaign in the history of advertising.

The ads feature a somber-but-sarcastic announcer (Pete Stacker) and an unctuous rock singer who echoes the announcer's sentiments over schmaltzy "dramatic" piano music. The rock singer's vocals are by one-time Survivor singer David Bickler, not the band's founder and frontman Jim Peterik as is often reported. Bickler was a personal friend of the musician who wrote the "cheesy '80s music" used in the commercials. A female chorus also appears on many of the ads. Parodies of the series have been created, including "Real Otaku Heroes," celebrating bizarre parts of anime fandom.

Each commercial pays tribute to an "unsung hero" (all of whom are male) such as:

Mr. Chinese Food Delivery Guy
Mr. Pro Wrestling Wardrobe Designer
Mr. Supermarket Free Sample Guy
Mr. Really-Bad Toupee Wearer
Mr. Silent Killer Gas Passer
Mr. Bass Plaque Maker
Mr. Really Really Really Bad Dancer
Mr. Supermarket Deli Meat Slicer
Mr. Foot Long Hot Dog Inventor
Mr. In The Car Nose Picker
Mr. Push Up Bra Inventor
Mr. Fancy Coffee Shop Coffee Pourer
Mr. Giant Taco Salad Inventor
Mr. 80 SPF Sunblock wearer
...and others
Television versions have also been produced of some of these spots. The popularity of the series, which is seen as a parody of 1980s beer advertising (including Budweiser's own from that era), has led to many of the commercials being traded on peer to peer file sharing networks. There were a few sites on the internet that had most of the ads in MP3 format. Sometime around August 2005 the owners of these sites were sent a letter from Anheuser-Busch asking that the advertisements be removed.

In 2003, a CD with 20 of the commercials (including two not aired) was released by Budweiser, and in 2005, a 3-CD set containing 59 commercials (one was a duplicate) was made available.

Those are hillarious...they're still on though.

The only ones I've seen are Mr. Way Too Much Cologne Wearer and Mr. Bowling Shoe Giver Outter.

My favorite is Mr. Giant Taco Salad Inventor!

Do you think Amazon has the CD?

-Ben