ST. LOUIS • Yes, the Clydesdales make an appearance.

And yes, there will be dudes and a dog.

But Anheuser-Busch InBev's lineup of ads for next weekend's Super Bowl reflects a bit of a shift for the big brewer on TV's biggest stage. It highlights two of the company's top priorities for the year to come - reviving its flagship brand, and launching a new one.

The six spot lineup - a sneak peek of which was given to the Post-Dispatch on Thursday - focuses largely on two beers that A-B InBev hopes will have a very good 2012: Budweiser and Bud Light Platinum.

Platinum, a blue-bottled, higher-alcohol "extension" of Bud Light, will get first billing, with a pair of 30-second spots in the game's first quarter. The beer is due to hit shelves Monday, and the twin ads represent a coming-out party and reflect Platinum's target audience: urban, diverse and sophisticated.

"The first says ‘What is Platinum?' The second is ‘Who's Platinum for?'" said Paul Chibe, vice president of U.S. marketing for Anheuser-Busch. "The point is to get the word out there."

Then the focus will shift to a beer everyone already knows, but which could use a shot in arm.

Budweiser will get two minute-long spots in the game's middle quarters. Both focus on the beer's long heritage, one set at the end of Prohibition and the other catapulting through the decades since. They come on the heels of news that Coors Light last year overtook Budweiser in sales, and at a time when A-B says "stabilizing" its flagship brand is a top priority. Taken together, the ads tell a story of a beer that has been part of the fabric of American life for eight decades.

"They're different chapters of the (Budweiser) story," Chibe said. "We really like the way those two work together."

Bud Light, still by far the nation's best-selling brew, will get two ads as well. One - produced by St. Louis ad shop Cannonball - is a partnership with the NFL and the song-identifying smartphone app Shazam, and will run before the halftime show. The other will be familiar to anyone who has seen Bud Light Super Bowl ads in years past. It's a light-hearted spoof involving some 20-something guys, a pool party and a well-trained pet. But it has a subtle difference from many previous efforts, Chibe said.

"If you look closely at that ad, you realize that the joke is not on the consumer (of Bud Light)," Chibe said. "In the past we've often made the consumer the butt of the joke, and you've shown your consumer not in an aspirational way. That works against you, and if you do it long enough, the imagery of your brand and the category gets hurt."

That tonal shift coincides with a change at the helm of Bud Light advertising. Last year, A-B InBev dropped the brand's longtime lead creative agency, BBD, and in December announced it had hired Chicago's McGarryBowen to lead Bud Light, and Translation, a smaller agency co-owned by rapper Jay-Z, to handle brand extensions like Platinum. The Super Bowl ads will be the first big work for both, and Chibe said he's pleased.

"Absolutely," he said. "The insight they're bringing is working really well."

It's a big investment. Chibe wouldn't say how much A-B InBev will spend on Super Bowl Sunday, but the average 30-second spot cost $3.5 million this year, a record. With four and a half minutes of ads, A-B is, as usual, among the biggest spenders.

These days, of course, the marketing goes well beyond the TV. The ads will direct viewers to a Twitter hashtag for Bud Light Platinum, and a special Facebook page for Bud Light - where they can ask A-B to donate $1 each to Tony LaRussa's Animal Rescue Foundation, up to $250,000. Then there's the Bud Light Hotel, a 180-room hotel Bud Light has taken over in Indianapolis, where it will host concerts and parties all week, broadcasting videos on the internet.