The expiration date on a bottle of beer or a tub of Nutella has more relevance in my world than the date of the Super Bowl, and by that I mean less-than-none-whatsoever.

If it weren’t for the halftime shows and commercials, and (once upon a time) the respite of spending a few hours in someone else’s living room, eating nachos and drinking beer while my significant other farts into their couch for a change, I probably never would have watched a Super Bowl in my life.

But I have, many times, and my cultural lexicon/history/nostalgia is the better for it. I couldn’t tell you anything about any football game I’ve ever seen, but I remember the first time I saw the Budweiser frogs. I bet you do too.

The iconic 1995 Super Bowl commercial opens without fanfare or voice over, with a pan across a nighttime bayou scene. The croaks of three plump frogs rise above the riot of ribbits and night noises to align and form the syllables, “Bud” “Wei” “Ser.” A glowing neon Bud sign on the bar behind them comes into focus. And … scene. That’s it.

Who knew it was possible to say so much without technically saying a thing? If only football was as nuanced.

The frogs weren’t the only time Budweiser spun a Super Bowl sales pitch with a roundabout route to our thirst. Some of the brand’s more memorable ads unabashedly twanged heartstrings that, let’s be honest, had precisely zero to do with beer.

I’m pretty sure no one even drinks a beer, and the brand makes only a fleeting appearance (on the hot rancher’s logo baseball cap), in Budweiser’s 2014 “Best Buds” commercial, which goes right for the feels with a story about the interspecies friendship between a puppy and a Clydesdale.

Hey, dogs can sell me anything, any time. But they won’t be doing it for Budweiser this year, at least during Sunday’s Big Game.

For the first time since I started kind of paying attention, Budweiser won’t be running a Super Bowl ad. The company said it will instead spend the money on public awareness campaigns about the coronavirus vaccine.

“In a lot of ways, Budweiser choosing to forgo a Super Bowl commercial this year is incredibly surprising because its unique commercials is one of the things the brand is most famous for and they’ve been doing it for 37 years,” said my colleague, Gazette media writer Terry Terrones, when I asked for help crafting a column that, however obliquely, touches on football and therefore makes me panicky and bored.

But then I started writing and realized that, like Budweiser Super Bowl commercials, this isn’t really about football or beer.

This is about the effect an ad campaign can have. This is about beer redemption. I say way to go Budweiser, good play and good call.

I won’t be watching the Super Bowl (again) this year, but while I don’t I will be thinking about your contributions, to me and us. I promise to pet my dog and drink one in your honor. Who knows? It might even be a Bud.