Anheuser supports Red Label with glossy ads.

It's a puzzling marketing strategy. A high-end beer sold only in a handful of world capitals, but supported by expensive advertising in glossy periodicals. That's the latest shot from Anheuser-Busch in the beer wars, the enigma that is Red Label from Budweiser.

Ads for Red Label in Vanity Fair depict sexy models in slinky poses. One ad shows a group sitting in a sidewalk cafe getting a full-body drenching in a rainstorm. In another, a woman perches on the edge of a bathtub exposing her nude back to partygoers. The ads call the brand "a new provocation" without actually saying it is a beer.

Anheuser-Busch is apparently trying to sell its newest beer to an elusive and sophisticated demographic, the jaded jet-setters who flit from club to club in the exotic world capitals listed on the label-New York, Rome, London, Hong Kong and Buenos Aires. No word on when the hoi polloi out in the heartland will get to sample this provocative golden nectar.

Anheuser has kept mum about its plans for Red Label, other than brief canned statements. The brand has the look of a test product at this juncture, with no press information available until recently, although the brand made its New York debut in August. A-B reports it is now selling Red Label in restaurants and clubs in all five of its target cities.

From the ads, one would never know that it is beer being shilled. But a beer it is. In a statement, the company notes that Red Label is a "full-bodied lager beer," and an examination of the full beer glasses depicted in the ads show it to be deep amber in color.

Launching a drink with a more premium image "would be consistent with Bud's strategy," Morgan Stanley beverage analyst Bill Pecoriello told Reuters. "The one segment where you've had tremendous growth and where they haven't fully participated is really the high-end segment."

It's a good time to be putting out new products, Pecoriello said. "That high-end segment is where a lot of the growth is, and Anheuser-Busch needs to participate in it."