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It’s advice plenty of us have received (or maybe should have received) over the years: Stop staring at your phone and live in the moment. For one beer-drinking golf fan, it landed him a deal with Michelob Ultra.
Mark Radetic, a Missouri man who was attending the PGA Championship in Tulsa, Oklahoma, went viral over the weekend just for holding a can: In an image showing fans watching Tiger Woods on Friday, Radetic was pretty much the only person not holding their phone to take a video or snapshot of the famed golfer. Instead, Radetic had his hands firmly attached to something else.
“[The photo] really took off because everybody was on their cam except me, and I was holding a Michelob Ultra,” he told St. Louis’s KMOV. Not only did people find the image funny, Michelob saw it as a great promotional opportunity. “They said they want to do an ad campaign around it.”
By Tuesday, Michelob Ultra had tracked Radetic down. “We found #TheMichelobGuy. As you can imagine, Mark was hard to reach,” the brand tweeted, along with a 15 second ad highlighting the moment. “He proved it’s only worth it if you enjoy it, so we immortalized him with some merch.”
We found #TheMichelobGuy. As you can imagine, Mark was hard to reach. He proved it’s only worth it if you enjoy it, so we immortalized him with some merch. Grab a tee and rock it at the next golf event for a chance to win some free ULTRA. pic.twitter.com/bfZRo0aQ1w
— Michelob ULTRA (@MichelobULTRA) May 24, 2022
Indeed, on Anheuser-Busch’s ShopBeerGear.com right now, you can order a Michelob Ultra Guy Tee or preorder a Michelob Ultra Guy Hat, both for $25.
And days later, Michelob Ultra was still milking the guy’s image. Earlier today, the beer brand tweeted a mockup of a potential Michelob Guy beer can. “We should make @TheMichUltraGuy his own can, right?” they wrote.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I think standing there watching Tiger Woods hit a shot and me holding a beer that it would turn into this,” Radetic told The 73rd Hole podcast. Later, he explained the moment: “I took some pictures as [Tiger] came up, but then, I’ll be honest with you, I’m not very good with my phone. And as they say, live in the moment. And I wanted to watch him hit the ball because it was a tough second shot. Also, they had signs up, ‘Do not take pictures of anybody or any player within 100 yards.’ Well, as you see, nobody paid attention to that. I put my phone down and just held on to my beer.”
But what did Radetic get for his efforts? He told The 73rd Hole, “They were promising me — as they said — a copious amount of beer and merchandise and the potential to go to other PGA events. So I am waiting, so we’ll see what happens.”
Sure, for most people, a bit of free beer may seem like a raw deal on $25 t-shirts, but for Mark Radetic, being content with just having a beer is kind of his whole thing.