Dilly Dilly

2017Catchphrase / advertising memeclassic
Dilly Dilly is a 2017 nonsense catchphrase from a Bud Light beer commercial by Wieden+Kennedy, featuring a medieval toast that became one of the biggest advertising-born memes of the late 2010s.

"Dilly Dilly" is a nonsense catchphrase from a 2017 Bud Light television ad campaign that broke out of its commercial origins to become one of the biggest advertising-born memes of the late 2010s. Created by ad agency Wieden+Kennedy as a medieval toast in a *Game of Thrones*-style beer commercial, the phrase spread through NFL stadiums, social media, and barroom culture at a speed that caught even its creators off guard. At its peak, "Dilly Dilly" was pulling 100,000 Google searches per week and had NFL quarterbacks using it as a play call at the line of scrimmage.

advertising memescatchphrase memesgame of thrones memesnfl memesbeer memes

Overview

"Dilly Dilly" is a meaningless two-word phrase used as a toast, cheer, or general expression of agreement in a series of medieval-themed Bud Light commercials. In the ads, a king and his court raise their beers and chant "Dilly Dilly" as a call-and-response affirmation, functioning like "hear, hear!" or "cheers!"1. The phrase has no fixed definition. As InBev chief marketing officer Miguel Patricio put it: "It doesn't mean anything. That's the beauty of it. I think that we all need our moments of nonsense and fun"3.

The ads parody *Game of Thrones*, set in a vaguely medieval kingdom where loyalty is measured by how much Bud Light you bring the king. Anyone offering craft beer or "spiced honey mead wine" gets banished to the "Pit of Misery." The whole thing works as populist comedy, mocking beer snobbery while turning a cheap domestic lager into a badge of in-group belonging5.

The phrase was invented by Wieden+Kennedy art director N.J. Placentra (then 30 years old) and copywriter Alex Ledford at the agency's New York office1. They were brainstorming ideas for a Bud Light commercial called "Banquet," which was filmed at a church in Manhattan and timed to coincide with the *Game of Thrones* season finale3.

Placentra and Ledford needed the king character to say something "like 'huzzah' but not actually 'huzzah'" when approving gifts of Bud Light1. Ledford suggested "Dilly Dilly" and Placentra laughed, so they dropped it into the script as a placeholder, figuring they could replace it later if the client approved the concept1. The original script only used the phrase once, but after Anheuser-Busch signed off on the ad, production director Jim Jenkins pushed to repeat it multiple times throughout the spot3.

The "Banquet" ad began airing in August 20172. Patricio later admitted the ad didn't test well in focus groups, but the team decided to go against the research, betting that repetition would help audiences catch on3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Television (Bud Light commercial), Twitter / social media (viral spread)
Key People
N.J. Placentra, Alex Ledford
Date
2017

The phrase was invented by Wieden+Kennedy art director N.J. Placentra (then 30 years old) and copywriter Alex Ledford at the agency's New York office. They were brainstorming ideas for a Bud Light commercial called "Banquet," which was filmed at a church in Manhattan and timed to coincide with the *Game of Thrones* season finale.

Placentra and Ledford needed the king character to say something "like 'huzzah' but not actually 'huzzah'" when approving gifts of Bud Light. Ledford suggested "Dilly Dilly" and Placentra laughed, so they dropped it into the script as a placeholder, figuring they could replace it later if the client approved the concept. The original script only used the phrase once, but after Anheuser-Busch signed off on the ad, production director Jim Jenkins pushed to repeat it multiple times throughout the spot.

The "Banquet" ad began airing in August 2017. Patricio later admitted the ad didn't test well in focus groups, but the team decided to go against the research, betting that repetition would help audiences catch on.

How It Spread

"Dilly Dilly" caught fire during the 2017 NFL season. Football fans adopted it as a barroom cheer and tailgate greeting almost immediately. By November 2017, Bud Light marketing VP Andy Goeler reported that the campaign was generating 100,000 Google searches per week and roughly 45,000 weekly YouTube searches. The hashtag #DillyDilly racked up over 7,000 uses on Instagram within months of the first ad.

The phrase crossed into sports culture in a literal way on November 16, 2017, when Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger appeared to use "Dilly Dilly" as an audible call at the line of scrimmage during a Thursday Night Football game against the Tennessee Titans. Twitter and Reddit exploded with reactions from viewers who were sure they'd heard it.

Bud Light leaned hard into the momentum. A second ad, "Pit of Misery," dropped for Thanksgiving football, featuring a character named Greg sharing Bud Light with prisoners. A third ad, "Handouts," promoted a sweepstakes for lifetime Super Bowl tickets. Then came a three-part trilogy: "Wizard" aired on Christmas Day during the Steelers-Texans game, "Ye Olde Pep Talk" ran during the AFC and NFC Championship games, and "The Bud Knight" debuted during Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018. Las Vegas sportsbooks even set a prop bet on the combined number of "Dilly Dillys" across all Bud Light Super Bowl ads, with an over/under of 15.5.

The meme printed itself onto T-shirts, flooded social media, and spawned unauthorized products. One independent brewer released a "Dilly Dilly" ale before being forced to pull it.

How to Use This Meme

"Dilly Dilly" works as a general-purpose cheer, toast, or expression of approval. People typically use it in these situations:

1

As a toast — Raise a drink (ideally a Bud Light, but any beer works) and say "Dilly Dilly!" Others in the group repeat it back.

2

As agreement — Someone says something you approve of. You respond with "Dilly Dilly" the way you'd say "hear, hear!" or "amen."

3

As a greeting — Walk up to friends at a bar, tailgate, or party and open with "Dilly Dilly" as a casual hello.

4

Online — Drop it in comment sections, tweets, or group chats as a reaction to good news or as ironic nostalgia for the late-2010s meme era.

Cultural Impact

"Dilly Dilly" crossed from advertising into genuine cultural artifact faster than almost any commercial catchphrase since Budweiser's own "Whassup?" in 1999. Bud Light marketing VP Andy Goeler directly compared the two, saying he believed "Dilly Dilly" could be the next "Whassup?".

The financial impact was measurable. A joint study by Stanford University and Humboldt University found that Budweiser's Super Bowl ad spending produced sales increases of up to 10 six-packs per thousand households in the week before the game, with lingering effects during subsequent major sporting events like March Madness. Morgan Stanley attributed Bud Light's first market share gain since 2011 to the campaign.

Anheuser-Busch InBev was the biggest Super Bowl ad spender in 2017 at $35 million, and the company tripled down on "Dilly Dilly" for Super Bowl LII, where 30-second spots cost over $5 million. The campaign won a Silver Lion at Cannes Lions 2018.

The phrase also made real-world sports impact. Beyond Roethlisberger's audible, the Masters tournament's attempt to suppress the chant only amplified it. A Philadelphia woman who named her July 2018 baby "Dilly Dilly" received a supply of Bud Light from the company.

Full History

The word "dilly" isn't a pure invention. Dictionary.com traces it to around 1905-1910 as an Americanism, probably a shortening of "delightful" or "delicious," meaning something remarkable or unusual. The phrase "dilly dilly" appears even earlier in "Lavender's Blue," a folk song printed around 1675, where it works as a rhythmic filler syllable: "Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green / When I am king, dilly dilly, you shall be queen". Burl Ives recorded a version of the song for Disney's 1949 film *So Dear to My Heart*. This nursery-rhyme cadence is likely why the phrase feels instinctively familiar even to people who'd never heard it before the Bud Light ad.

The 2017 campaign landed at a perfect cultural moment. *Game of Thrones* was the biggest show on television, making the medieval parody instantly readable. And the commercial's class-comedy angle hit a nerve. As one analysis described it, the ad "brilliantly calls out the snobbery of craft brew culture" without ever making a direct pitch for Bud Light's quality. The message was simple: Bud Light is the people's beer, and the people are now in charge. "Dilly Dilly" was the coronation cheer.

What made the phrase stick was its social utility. It functioned as a low-effort bonding ritual, a verbal handshake between strangers. Placentra described its flexibility: "It can also work as a greeting, a nod of approval, expression of gratitude". People used it in wedding toasts, as a greeting at tailgates, and NFL announcers dropped it on broadcasts. Morgan Stanley credited the ad campaign with increasing Bud Light's market share for the first time since 2011. MillerCoors marketing executive Greg Butler pushed back, arguing the campaign "was more about selling a meme than selling beer".

The 2018 Masters tournament at Augusta National provided an unexpected boost when security reportedly began ejecting spectators who shouted "Dilly Dilly" after golfers' tee shots. The attempted ban only made the phrase more attractive as a minor act of rebellion.

Bud Light extended the campaign well into 2018. During the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl LII win, the brand released a "Philly Philly" bottle-and-glasses package, and skywriters spelled out "Philly Philly Dilly Dilly" during the championship parade. The Bud Light King character (played by actor John Hoogenakker) delivered beers to fans during Loyola's 2018 NCAA tournament run. Additional ads like "Tapping Ceremony" (March 2018) and "Redemption" (May 2018) kept the medieval universe alive, and a FIFA World Cup-themed series launched that summer. The campaign won a Silver Lion for Social & Influencer at the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

By 2019, the phrase had entered what one writer called the "cringe phase," the natural lifecycle endpoint where a meme shifts from fun social cue to the thing your uncle shouts at Thanksgiving. Bud Light seemed to recognize this, making the ads increasingly self-aware before eventually killing off the Bud Knight in a *Game of Thrones* crossover featuring a dragon. With *Game of Thrones* ending its final season and the medieval setting losing its cultural anchor, the "Dilly Dilly" era wound down.

The campaign's impact on advertising strategy was lasting. Before "Dilly Dilly," beer ads tended toward emotional storytelling or clever comedy. After it, every brand wanted their own nonsense catchphrase, a viral-ready verbal meme that could travel beyond the 30-second spot. Few succeeded. The combination of nursery-rhyme phonetics, *Game of Thrones* timing, and a massive NFL ad buy was difficult to replicate.

Fun Facts

The creators originally planned to replace "Dilly Dilly" with something better. Placentra said Alex Ledford just blurted it out during brainstorming, he laughed, and they put it in the script "thinking we could always come up with something else later".

Placentra described his feelings about the phrase's success as "a weird mix of pride and embarrassment," noting that a zombie apocalypse ad they shot around the same time was, in his opinion, funnier.

The ad didn't perform well in pre-air testing. InBev CMO Miguel Patricio went against the research data and greenlit it anyway, betting that repeated exposure would make it click.

"Dilly" as a standalone word dates to around 1905 in American English, originally meaning "wonderful" or "remarkable," likely shortened from "delicious".

Las Vegas set a prop bet for Super Bowl LII on the total number of "Dilly Dillys" spoken across all Bud Light commercials, with an over/under of 15.5.

Derivatives & Variations

"Philly Philly"

— A Bud Light promotional tie-in to the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl LII victory. The brand released commemorative bottles and had the phrase skywritten during the championship parade[3].

"Pit of Misery"

— The fictional punishment zone from the ads became its own catchphrase and meme, used to describe any unpleasant situation[3].

The Bud Knight

— A character introduced in the Super Bowl LII ad who became a recurring figure in later spots and appeared at the Eagles' victory parade. Was eventually "killed off" in a *Game of Thrones* crossover ad[3].

Unauthorized "Dilly Dilly" Ale

— An independent brewery released a beer using the phrase before being forced to pull it, drawing attention to the meme's commercial reach[1].

Roethlisberger Audible

— Ben Roethlisberger's use of the phrase as a play call became its own viral moment, with clips circulating on Twitter and Reddit[8].

Downtown Dilly Dilly Concert

— A July 2018 Bud Light summer concert in Roanoke, Virginia, featuring country singer Josh Turner[3].

Frequently Asked Questions

Dilly Dilly

2017Catchphrase / advertising memeclassic
Dilly Dilly is a 2017 nonsense catchphrase from a Bud Light beer commercial by Wieden+Kennedy, featuring a medieval toast that became one of the biggest advertising-born memes of the late 2010s.

"Dilly Dilly" is a nonsense catchphrase from a 2017 Bud Light television ad campaign that broke out of its commercial origins to become one of the biggest advertising-born memes of the late 2010s. Created by ad agency Wieden+Kennedy as a medieval toast in a *Game of Thrones*-style beer commercial, the phrase spread through NFL stadiums, social media, and barroom culture at a speed that caught even its creators off guard. At its peak, "Dilly Dilly" was pulling 100,000 Google searches per week and had NFL quarterbacks using it as a play call at the line of scrimmage.

advertising memes catchphrase memes game of thrones memes nfl memes beer memes

Overview

"Dilly Dilly" is a meaningless two-word phrase used as a toast, cheer, or general expression of agreement in a series of medieval-themed Bud Light commercials. In the ads, a king and his court raise their beers and chant "Dilly Dilly" as a call-and-response affirmation, functioning like "hear, hear!" or "cheers!". The phrase has no fixed definition. As InBev chief marketing officer Miguel Patricio put it: "It doesn't mean anything. That's the beauty of it. I think that we all need our moments of nonsense and fun".

The ads parody *Game of Thrones*, set in a vaguely medieval kingdom where loyalty is measured by how much Bud Light you bring the king. Anyone offering craft beer or "spiced honey mead wine" gets banished to the "Pit of Misery." The whole thing works as populist comedy, mocking beer snobbery while turning a cheap domestic lager into a badge of in-group belonging.

The phrase was invented by Wieden+Kennedy art director N.J. Placentra (then 30 years old) and copywriter Alex Ledford at the agency's New York office. They were brainstorming ideas for a Bud Light commercial called "Banquet," which was filmed at a church in Manhattan and timed to coincide with the *Game of Thrones* season finale.

Placentra and Ledford needed the king character to say something "like 'huzzah' but not actually 'huzzah'" when approving gifts of Bud Light. Ledford suggested "Dilly Dilly" and Placentra laughed, so they dropped it into the script as a placeholder, figuring they could replace it later if the client approved the concept. The original script only used the phrase once, but after Anheuser-Busch signed off on the ad, production director Jim Jenkins pushed to repeat it multiple times throughout the spot.

The "Banquet" ad began airing in August 2017. Patricio later admitted the ad didn't test well in focus groups, but the team decided to go against the research, betting that repetition would help audiences catch on.

Origin & Background

Platform
Television (Bud Light commercial), Twitter / social media (viral spread)
Key People
N.J. Placentra, Alex Ledford
Date
2017

The phrase was invented by Wieden+Kennedy art director N.J. Placentra (then 30 years old) and copywriter Alex Ledford at the agency's New York office. They were brainstorming ideas for a Bud Light commercial called "Banquet," which was filmed at a church in Manhattan and timed to coincide with the *Game of Thrones* season finale.

Placentra and Ledford needed the king character to say something "like 'huzzah' but not actually 'huzzah'" when approving gifts of Bud Light. Ledford suggested "Dilly Dilly" and Placentra laughed, so they dropped it into the script as a placeholder, figuring they could replace it later if the client approved the concept. The original script only used the phrase once, but after Anheuser-Busch signed off on the ad, production director Jim Jenkins pushed to repeat it multiple times throughout the spot.

The "Banquet" ad began airing in August 2017. Patricio later admitted the ad didn't test well in focus groups, but the team decided to go against the research, betting that repetition would help audiences catch on.

How It Spread

"Dilly Dilly" caught fire during the 2017 NFL season. Football fans adopted it as a barroom cheer and tailgate greeting almost immediately. By November 2017, Bud Light marketing VP Andy Goeler reported that the campaign was generating 100,000 Google searches per week and roughly 45,000 weekly YouTube searches. The hashtag #DillyDilly racked up over 7,000 uses on Instagram within months of the first ad.

The phrase crossed into sports culture in a literal way on November 16, 2017, when Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger appeared to use "Dilly Dilly" as an audible call at the line of scrimmage during a Thursday Night Football game against the Tennessee Titans. Twitter and Reddit exploded with reactions from viewers who were sure they'd heard it.

Bud Light leaned hard into the momentum. A second ad, "Pit of Misery," dropped for Thanksgiving football, featuring a character named Greg sharing Bud Light with prisoners. A third ad, "Handouts," promoted a sweepstakes for lifetime Super Bowl tickets. Then came a three-part trilogy: "Wizard" aired on Christmas Day during the Steelers-Texans game, "Ye Olde Pep Talk" ran during the AFC and NFC Championship games, and "The Bud Knight" debuted during Super Bowl LII on February 4, 2018. Las Vegas sportsbooks even set a prop bet on the combined number of "Dilly Dillys" across all Bud Light Super Bowl ads, with an over/under of 15.5.

The meme printed itself onto T-shirts, flooded social media, and spawned unauthorized products. One independent brewer released a "Dilly Dilly" ale before being forced to pull it.

How to Use This Meme

"Dilly Dilly" works as a general-purpose cheer, toast, or expression of approval. People typically use it in these situations:

1

As a toast — Raise a drink (ideally a Bud Light, but any beer works) and say "Dilly Dilly!" Others in the group repeat it back.

2

As agreement — Someone says something you approve of. You respond with "Dilly Dilly" the way you'd say "hear, hear!" or "amen."

3

As a greeting — Walk up to friends at a bar, tailgate, or party and open with "Dilly Dilly" as a casual hello.

4

Online — Drop it in comment sections, tweets, or group chats as a reaction to good news or as ironic nostalgia for the late-2010s meme era.

Cultural Impact

"Dilly Dilly" crossed from advertising into genuine cultural artifact faster than almost any commercial catchphrase since Budweiser's own "Whassup?" in 1999. Bud Light marketing VP Andy Goeler directly compared the two, saying he believed "Dilly Dilly" could be the next "Whassup?".

The financial impact was measurable. A joint study by Stanford University and Humboldt University found that Budweiser's Super Bowl ad spending produced sales increases of up to 10 six-packs per thousand households in the week before the game, with lingering effects during subsequent major sporting events like March Madness. Morgan Stanley attributed Bud Light's first market share gain since 2011 to the campaign.

Anheuser-Busch InBev was the biggest Super Bowl ad spender in 2017 at $35 million, and the company tripled down on "Dilly Dilly" for Super Bowl LII, where 30-second spots cost over $5 million. The campaign won a Silver Lion at Cannes Lions 2018.

The phrase also made real-world sports impact. Beyond Roethlisberger's audible, the Masters tournament's attempt to suppress the chant only amplified it. A Philadelphia woman who named her July 2018 baby "Dilly Dilly" received a supply of Bud Light from the company.

Full History

The word "dilly" isn't a pure invention. Dictionary.com traces it to around 1905-1910 as an Americanism, probably a shortening of "delightful" or "delicious," meaning something remarkable or unusual. The phrase "dilly dilly" appears even earlier in "Lavender's Blue," a folk song printed around 1675, where it works as a rhythmic filler syllable: "Lavender's blue, dilly dilly, lavender's green / When I am king, dilly dilly, you shall be queen". Burl Ives recorded a version of the song for Disney's 1949 film *So Dear to My Heart*. This nursery-rhyme cadence is likely why the phrase feels instinctively familiar even to people who'd never heard it before the Bud Light ad.

The 2017 campaign landed at a perfect cultural moment. *Game of Thrones* was the biggest show on television, making the medieval parody instantly readable. And the commercial's class-comedy angle hit a nerve. As one analysis described it, the ad "brilliantly calls out the snobbery of craft brew culture" without ever making a direct pitch for Bud Light's quality. The message was simple: Bud Light is the people's beer, and the people are now in charge. "Dilly Dilly" was the coronation cheer.

What made the phrase stick was its social utility. It functioned as a low-effort bonding ritual, a verbal handshake between strangers. Placentra described its flexibility: "It can also work as a greeting, a nod of approval, expression of gratitude". People used it in wedding toasts, as a greeting at tailgates, and NFL announcers dropped it on broadcasts. Morgan Stanley credited the ad campaign with increasing Bud Light's market share for the first time since 2011. MillerCoors marketing executive Greg Butler pushed back, arguing the campaign "was more about selling a meme than selling beer".

The 2018 Masters tournament at Augusta National provided an unexpected boost when security reportedly began ejecting spectators who shouted "Dilly Dilly" after golfers' tee shots. The attempted ban only made the phrase more attractive as a minor act of rebellion.

Bud Light extended the campaign well into 2018. During the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl LII win, the brand released a "Philly Philly" bottle-and-glasses package, and skywriters spelled out "Philly Philly Dilly Dilly" during the championship parade. The Bud Light King character (played by actor John Hoogenakker) delivered beers to fans during Loyola's 2018 NCAA tournament run. Additional ads like "Tapping Ceremony" (March 2018) and "Redemption" (May 2018) kept the medieval universe alive, and a FIFA World Cup-themed series launched that summer. The campaign won a Silver Lion for Social & Influencer at the 2018 Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity.

By 2019, the phrase had entered what one writer called the "cringe phase," the natural lifecycle endpoint where a meme shifts from fun social cue to the thing your uncle shouts at Thanksgiving. Bud Light seemed to recognize this, making the ads increasingly self-aware before eventually killing off the Bud Knight in a *Game of Thrones* crossover featuring a dragon. With *Game of Thrones* ending its final season and the medieval setting losing its cultural anchor, the "Dilly Dilly" era wound down.

The campaign's impact on advertising strategy was lasting. Before "Dilly Dilly," beer ads tended toward emotional storytelling or clever comedy. After it, every brand wanted their own nonsense catchphrase, a viral-ready verbal meme that could travel beyond the 30-second spot. Few succeeded. The combination of nursery-rhyme phonetics, *Game of Thrones* timing, and a massive NFL ad buy was difficult to replicate.

Fun Facts

The creators originally planned to replace "Dilly Dilly" with something better. Placentra said Alex Ledford just blurted it out during brainstorming, he laughed, and they put it in the script "thinking we could always come up with something else later".

Placentra described his feelings about the phrase's success as "a weird mix of pride and embarrassment," noting that a zombie apocalypse ad they shot around the same time was, in his opinion, funnier.

The ad didn't perform well in pre-air testing. InBev CMO Miguel Patricio went against the research data and greenlit it anyway, betting that repeated exposure would make it click.

"Dilly" as a standalone word dates to around 1905 in American English, originally meaning "wonderful" or "remarkable," likely shortened from "delicious".

Las Vegas set a prop bet for Super Bowl LII on the total number of "Dilly Dillys" spoken across all Bud Light commercials, with an over/under of 15.5.

Derivatives & Variations

"Philly Philly"

— A Bud Light promotional tie-in to the Philadelphia Eagles' Super Bowl LII victory. The brand released commemorative bottles and had the phrase skywritten during the championship parade[3].

"Pit of Misery"

— The fictional punishment zone from the ads became its own catchphrase and meme, used to describe any unpleasant situation[3].

The Bud Knight

— A character introduced in the Super Bowl LII ad who became a recurring figure in later spots and appeared at the Eagles' victory parade. Was eventually "killed off" in a *Game of Thrones* crossover ad[3].

Unauthorized "Dilly Dilly" Ale

— An independent brewery released a beer using the phrase before being forced to pull it, drawing attention to the meme's commercial reach[1].

Roethlisberger Audible

— Ben Roethlisberger's use of the phrase as a play call became its own viral moment, with clips circulating on Twitter and Reddit[8].

Downtown Dilly Dilly Concert

— A July 2018 Bud Light summer concert in Roanoke, Virginia, featuring country singer Josh Turner[3].

Frequently Asked Questions