The Sunday (May 17) series finale of “Mad Men” has many thinking about the powers of advertising and messaging. In the early days of its existence, Hip-Hop often was used as a punchline in commercials. Actors would be shown lampooning Rap, beatboxing and other aspects of the culture. In the mid-90s, however, things began to change as advertisers began to realize Hip-Hop was not a fad, and just how much it was beginning to penetrate the lexicon.

Several iconic Sprite commercials featuring artists like Pete Rock, CL Smooth and Grand Puba led the way. By the end of the decade, Hip-Hop culture in the mainstream was more of a challenge to tap into. The Notorious B.I.G., Tupac and Eazy-E had all died in the last three years. While ‘Pac and Biggie slang St. Ide’s malt liquor, Eazy-E promoted fire safety in public service announcements. However, there was one campaign that launched in 1999 which brought Hip-Hop parlance to the mainstream and indelibly changed the vernacular of the nation, if not the world.

Enter one of the world’s largest brewery: Budweiser. Years before Devin The Dude would lyrically (and publicly) celebrate Budweiser’s “drinkability,” the Missouri mega beer-maker took some (arguably) inventive slang, and made it cleverly universal:

The “Whassup” campaign transcended race, age, and gender in its three years of running. It would become a meme before memes, and a water-cooler joke to an exponential degree. The campaign had sequels, too.

“Whassup” first aired on December 20, 1999 during “Monday Night Football.” As the NFL season wrapped, Anheuser-Busch popped the top on a pop culture phenomenon. Parodied by the Wayans Brothers in Scary Movie, alluded to on “The Simpsons,” the unique greeting—clearly a massive exaggeration of the meaningless conversations Everyman was having, it worked.

However, this ad’s “Don Draper,” Charles Stone, III did not go to the Up In Smoke Tour or Woodstock ’99 to gain his insights into the populus. Instead, “Whassup” began as a short film called “True,” (another catch-phrase) which won the Cannes Grand Prix award and inspired the Grand Clio award-winning ad.

Was this ad the Hip-Hop Generation’s Coca-Cola Hilltop moment?

Check out other Ambrosia For Heads’ “Do Remember” pieces.

Related: Do Remember: Pete Rock & CL Smooth’s The Creator (Video)