Bud light leaves crested butte with the blues

Photo: Instagram / Whatever USA

Promoters for the drink's Whatever USA commercial, which culminated in a parade and party earlier this month, paid $500,000 to the small American town to rent it out for the weekend. The payment included permission for Bud to paint the main street (Elk Avenue) blue, along with the lampposts.

This is not the first time a town has agreed to don a new colour for promotional purposes: one town in Spain was painted completely blue in the run-up to the new The Smurfs movie. Juzcar, though, decided to keep their traditionally white-washed homes that way.

Now that the Crested Butte party has wound down, the question is left: who will clean up the mess?

Heavy rain caused the paint to wash off the main street, reports the Denver Post, while workers have been scraping it up off the sidewalk, which Public Works director Rodney Due says is a result of the event organisers not using street-striping paint.

In addition to the original hiring fee, Bud were apparently supposed to pay $20,000 to overlay Elk Avenue, although the cost of the operation has now increased to $70,000.

"I think it's really sad," Due told the Post. "The event went off great. So it's sad when this kind of thing tarnishes it at the end."