If you’ve purchased a six or 12 pack, or maybe even a case of beer this holiday season, you may have noticed the friendly face of a large St. Bernard on Budweiser’s annual holiday cans.
That St. Bernard’s name is Wilson and he’s a resident of Liberty Township, just north of Cincinnati. Wilson is just 2-years old, and his owners, Kelsey Dempsey and Colin Black, say he’s a 160 lbs. of love.
"If we're sitting on the couch, he'll come and he wants to get up and cuddle with us for a bit, and he just sits on your belly. And that's a lot of weight," said Black. Dempsey adds, "Yea’ he thinks he’s a lap dog."
Earlier this year Kelsey and Colin heard about Budweiser’s ‘Pupweiser holiday photo contest.’ On a whim, they reposted a holiday pic of Wilson on Instagram using Budweiser's contest hashtag - The St. Bernard sporting a festive Christmas wreath around his neck.
How it started for Wilson vs How it's going pic.twitter.com/TajXSIWc1T
— beer.eth (@budweiserusa) November 18, 2021
"And then a couple of days later, they messaged me and said, Hey, by the way, you're a finalist," said Dempsey. Competing against 3 other dogs, Wilson pulled out the votes in a social media competition over the next week.
Besides getting his picture featured on the holiday beer cans, the canine recently got a private tour of Anheuser Busch in St. Louis where he met with the beer-makers famous clydesdales.
There are four holiday Budweiser cans featuring the clydesdales, the traditional dalmatian, and of course Wilson.
The latter has more than 14,000 followers on Instagram.
![Anheuser-Busch in St. Louis, photo shoot.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/36cd3c3/2147483647/strip/true/crop/2148x1256+0+0/resize/880x515!/quality/90/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fnpr.brightspotcdn.com%2F9b%2Fef%2Fd44f488a403682e0871ec2fd1a46%2Fscreen-shot-2021-12-22-at-10.43.53%20AM.png)
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