Budweiser Super Bowl ad spotlights Tejon Ranch, before development’s bulldozers come

Amid the celebrity-strewn Super Bowl commercials Sunday night, sharp observers would have noticed a certain beer company’s ad showing its clydesdale horses galloping through the sprawling Tejon Ranch property north of Los Angeles.

Budweiser used the hilly landscape as its horse-drawn carriage — with requisite Dalmatian — rolled through grain fields dotted with wind turbines, the Los Angeles Times reported. The commercial promoted the company’s renewable energy efforts.

The 270,000-acre ranch — California’s largest privately-owned piece of land — is where a developer wants to build a 20,000-unit planned housing community called Centennial.

Tejon Ranch Company received the green light in December from county officials to develop the community, which will be about 60 miles north of L.A. It was a controversial decision, with opponents believing it will damage the pristine environment.

Tejon Ranch offers other picturesque landscapes, with about two dozen commercial shoots each year. It’s also popular for music videos. Singers Taylor Swift and Selena Gomez have both shot there in recent years.

The Tejon Ranch Company, which owns the ranch, also makes money growing almonds and pistachios, according to the Times. About 250,000 acres of the ranch is leased out for cattle grazing [LAT] — Dennis Lynch