With the backdrop of the Olympics and a comically botched election, this summer is bound to be what Ricardo Marques, a vice president from Budweiser, calls “maybe the most American summer ever.” 
 
 So Budweiser is going to potentially ingenious, potentially absurd branding extremes. The company has kept the same can you already know, but when you look closely, you’ll realize that it has swapped out its own name, “Budweiser,” for “America.” That’s right, Budweiser has renamed its beer America for the summer. “We thought nothing was more iconic than Budweiser and nothing was more iconic than America,” says Tosh Hall, creative director at the can’s branding firm JKR. 
 
 It’s pretty obvious what Budweiser is doing here. Summer is peak beer-selling season–the entire industry sees a double-digit boost. Since 2011, Budweiser has released special summer-edition cans that feature images such as the American flag and the Statue of Liberty, upping the ante on its red-white-and-blue packaging with a full salute to patriotism–as a nod to Memorial Day, July Fourth, and the quiet American dream of drinking a beer in your backyard while charring various processed meats. 
 
 But this year, Budweiser is going even further. The summer cans and bottles will run through the November election–which is to say that for seven months, every Budweiser sold in the U.S. will read “America.” 
 
 Changing the title wasn’t as simple as typing out a new label. Budweiser is a hand-drawn script that had to be recreated to spell our country’s name. The “A” in America was particularly challenging, because as the focal point of the word, it had to channel the same distinctive, swirly aesthetic of the Budweiser “B.” 
 
 The alterations don’t stop with the beer’s name. Almost every bit of type on the Budweiser label has been scrubbed away by Easter Egg patriotism, with new text citing the Pledge of Allegiance, the Star Spangled Banner, and America the Beautiful–all rendered in newly developed hand lettering, inspired by Budweiser’s archives. 
 
 To name just a few of the updates: “King of Beers” has been changed to “E Pluribus Unum,” “The World Renowned” changed to “Land of the Free,” and “Anheuser-Busch, Inc.” updated to read “Liberty & Justice For All.” Even legalese like “Trademark” was changed to “Indivisible,” and “Registered” changed to “Since 1776” (you know, the year America was founded–even though, technically, Budweiser wouldn’t be available for another 100 years). 

 The third-most-popular beer in America, Budweiser sells about 100 million cases each year, more than Yuengling, Pabst Blue Ribbon, Busch, and Heineken, combined. This summer, the beer company wanted to remake its can to seize on the next few months’ compelling competitions—the Olympics and the U.S. presidential election. 
 
 It would be one thing to report that Budweiser’s move—simultaneously funny, cynical, knowing, and absurd—is wasteful re-lettering. But there is some evidence that patriotic branding around international sports event swells the hearts of consumers. Surveys collected during the 2006 FIFA World Cup and 2008 Olympics found that “consumers’ patriotism during international mega-sporting events significantly increases their involvement in those events, and that heightened level of patriotism … positively influences their attitudes towards patriotic advertising.” 
 
 If beer drinkers are as interested in this rebranding as people on Twitter, one should anticipate a summer of excruciating quips, including but not limited to: “is there any America left?” “this America is for you," “my America went bad,” “America is in the trash,” “nobody puts America in the trash,” “America is ice cold right now,” “America goes down [dramatic pause] smooth,” and “I’m offended that the Belgian multinational that produces Budweiser thought the U.S. wants explicit credit for the taste of its beer.” 
 
 Budweiser’s move raises the question of why other companies haven’t joined the patriotic arms race. The word “America” probably cannot be trademarked: Common phrases that receive trademarks, like “Just Do It,” require secondary meanings as the result of specific usage. Trademarking a word like “America” is like trademarking any other ubiquitous phrase, like “good morning,” or “yes, thank you,” or “you have to see Hamilton.” 
 
 That hasn’t stopped a few super-patriotic people from trying. There is one presidential candidate in U.S. history who has tried to trademark a phrase that uses the country’s name. That phrase? Make American great again. America does go down smooth, after all. 

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 Budweiser is replacing its brand name on certain packaging this year with 'America.' Credit: Anheuser-Busch 
 
 Update: A-B InBev on Tuesday, May 10, confirmed the limited-edition label change, saying "America" would replace "Budweiser" on the front of 12-oz. cans and bottles. The packaging will run from May 23 through election season in November, the brewer stated. The agency that handled the design change is Jones Knowles Ritchie, New York. The packaging will be accompanied by a summer-long campaign called "America is in Your Hands." A national TV spot featuring the cans and bottles will premiere on June 1. 
 
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 Budweiser, which has dressed bottles in stars and stripes in previous summers, could be poised to make one of its biggest patriotic plays yet. The brand has sought approval for new labels that replace the Budweiser name with "America," according to a filing with the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau. 
 
 The labels don't stop there. They include phrases such as "E Pluribus Unum" and "from the redwood forest to the Gulf stream waters this land was made for you and me," as well as "indivisible since 1776." 
 
 A Budweiser spokesman declined to comment on the labels. 
 
 Budweiser, which is owned by Belgium-based Anheuser-Busch InBev, has a history of using patriotism in marketing. Last year, limited-edition packaging included an image of the Statue of Liberty. The brew has also used stars-and-stripes on can designs in recent summers. 
 
 But replacing "Budweiser" with "America" -- even for a limited time -- would supercede previous attempts at patriotic marketing. In a recent interview, Anheuser-Busch InBev U.S. Marketing VP Jorn Socquet declined to comment on Budweiser's summer package design plans. But he foreshadowed Bud's summer marketing by suggesting the brand would make use of the Olympics and Fourth of July celebrations, as well as the Copa America soccer tournament that will be played in the U.S. 
 
 "You have this wave of patriotism that is going to go up and down throughout the summertime," Mr. Socquet said. "And we found with Budweiser such a beautiful angle to play on that sentiment." 
 
 Budweiser is an official U.S. Olympic Games sponsor. The brand recently stated that a number of Olympic athletes would appear in a new ad slated to premiere in June and run during the Olympics broadcast on NBC. Budweiser also stated that it is "creating a branded and editorial content series that tells the inspiring stories of Team Budweiser athletes, which will premiere in June." 
 
 Budweiser's agency is Anomaly. 

 CLOSE Thanks to Anheuser-Busch, beer just got a little bit more patriotic. The company announced it is replacing the Budweiser logo with the word "America" on its 12-oz. cans and bottles this summer. USA TODAY 
 
 Budweiser wants you to grab a can of ‘America’ this summer. (Photo: Jones Knowles Ritchie New York) 
 
 Nothing says 'America' like an ice-cold can of mass-produced beer. 
 
 Anheuser-Busch announced Tuesday that the company is replacing the Budweiser logo with “America” on its 12-oz. cans and bottles this summer. 
 
 The cans of patriotic nectar will be available May 23 through the November election and aim “to inspire drinkers to celebrate America and Budweiser's shared values of freedom and authenticity.” 
 
 The company is no stranger to American-themed summer cans, which have been transformed into American flags and featured the Statue of Liberty in the past. This year, the cans and bottles will try to stir American pride with lines from the Pledge of Allegiance and lyrics from The Star Spangled Banner. 
 
 Apparently, the Belgium-based megabrewer, which owns more than 200 brands globally, including Corona and Stella Artois, knows the way straight to our checkbooks. Throw some America on it! 
 
 Ricardo Marques, vice president of Budweiser, notes that with Americans partaking in the Summer Olympics and the Copa America Centenario soccer tournament being held in the U.S., the cans are an ideal way to salute the United States. 
 
 "We are embarking on what should be the most patriotic summer that this generation has ever seen,” Marques said in a statement. 
 
 Changing the name to "America" is potentially a risky move for the brand, which already "says America, without saying it," according to John Immesoete, Chief Creative Officer of global marketing agency Epsilon. 
 
 "They are basically taking a brand name they’ve spent billions of dollars behind worldwide, and tossing it aside for a while and putting 'America' on it," said Immesoete, who has worked on past Budweiser Super Bowl campaigns, but is not associated with the "America is in Your Hands" campaign. 
 
 He notes that while some consumers may be intrigued by the new can design, others will likely be alienated by the company's attempt to literally "package America." 
 
 Drink it up, America. 
 
 Follow @MaryBowerman on Twitter. 
 
 CLOSE Budweiser cans will sport the new branding until the presidential election. Video provided by Newsy Newslook 
 
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– In an election year filled with the phrase "Make America Great Again," it's perhaps appropriate that Anheuser-Busch InBev is introducing packaging for Budweiser that, as USA Today puts it, is going to "throw some America on it." Per Advertising Age, the company confirmed Tuesday it will be swapping out the labels on its 12-ounce Bud bottles and cans, replacing "Budweiser: King of Beers" with limited-edition labels that say "America," accompanied by "E Pluribus Unum," "Indivisible Since 1776," and, courtesy of Woody Guthrie, "From the redwood forest to the Gulf Stream waters, this land was made for you and me." The new labels will start to roll out May 23 and will continue through November, with a goal of "[inspiring] drinkers to celebrate America and Budweiser's shared values of freedom and authenticity," per a press release. The short-lived packaging for the brand—the third most-popular beer in the US, per the Atlantic—is part of its "America Is in Your Hands" campaign. "We are embarking on what should be the most patriotic summer that this generation has ever seen," the VP of Budweiser says, pointing out Team USA's competition in the Summer Olympics, as well as July Fourth celebrations, the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service, and June's Copa America Centenario soccer tournament, being held in the US for the first time. "I feel like I'm drinking an artifact bound for a Michael Moore documentary—something that's enjoyable when consumed in an ironic way, with a sort of Stephen Colbert, Team America, Mission Accomplished bravado," writes Mark Wilson for Co.Design.