The Five Dumbest Things on Wall Street This Week

Chaser This ice water's for you

1. Water World

Anheuser-Busch (BUD) just got bounced from its own rockin' party.

This week the maker of Budweiser and Bud Light ended a popular tavern promotion after some participants inexplicably kept choosing the wrong drink. The game, Bud Pong, encouraged bar-hoppers to play table tennis while drinking water.

The St. Louis-based brewer says it devised Bud Pong "to create an interactive experience for contemporary adults at bars and clubs, where adults must be 21 and older to participate." That sounds like a winning formula, as countless adults use bars as an excuse to interact under the influence of water.

But even the best-laid plans of well-hydrated companies can end in big hangovers. Anheuser, which previously has pledged to keep beer fun and social, awoke to that unpleasant reality Tuesday.

"It has come to our attention that despite our explicit guidelines, there may have been instances where this promotion was not carried out in the manner it was intended," chief flack Francine I. Katz said in a press release. "As a company that has invested more than $500 million to promote responsible consumption among adults and to discourage abuse, we believe it is important that our intentions with Bud Pong not be misperceived."

Don't worry, it's all water under the bridge to us.

Dumb-o-Meter score: 95. "Abusive drinking by college students has caused the nation to examine ways we can avoid these kinds of senseless tragedies," Anheuser-Busch says on an informative Web site, beeresponsible.com, which despite its title fails to name any responsible bees.

To view Colin Barr's humorous video take on the sport of beer pong, click here.