The difference, Katie, being that you don't fucking taste scotch tape and kleenex. I do both, but a tissue is a tissue and transparent tape is transparent tape, but a Sprite is not a Coke. If I were working in a restaraunt and I were expected to ask "what kind?" when someone ordered a Coke, I would slap them in the mouth for being an idiot.
For one thing, one would be dopey enough to ask for a soda or a pop in a restaraunt rather than specifying which and save us both thirty seconds. It gets even worse when you run into the confusion factor it arises. If someone asks me for a Kleenex, it's unlikely that someone will say "wait, aren't you going to ask me what kind of kleenex I want, you idiot?" It just doesn't happen.
The Budwieser one, regardless of the fact it wasn't the first beer out there, was a good example. Another would be someone telling you "Hey, I want to play pong" and then getting indignant when they bring you Pong instead of Legend of Zelda. Bluntly speaking, it IS a stupid mannerism. Just because it's prevalent in the South doesn't mean the rest of the country has to respect it, regardless of its inherent idiocy.