Monday’s ad is a trade ad, by the United States Brewing Industry Foundation, from 1940. After prohibition ended, the industry started doing PSA-type ads in an attempt to create goodwill for beer and brewers. They would later go on to do a fairly sophisticated series of ads between 1946 and 1956, known unofficially as Beer Belongs. Officially, they were “The Home Life in America” series, consisting of 120 ads, with a new ad running in major periodicals each month. Last year, for my Beer in Ads series, I featured every one of them. But in the years before that, the U.S. Brewing Industry Foundation (a precursor to the original Brewer’s Association) dabbled with a variety of similar ads promoting the industry as a whole. These were especially popular during World War 2, and in fact they even won an award from the government for some of these ads. Most of the ads were black and white, although a few were in color, though usually in a minimal way, with a few colors accented rather than being in full color.
In this ad, showing one black sheep grazing among a dozen white ones, the message is none to subtle. And if you still weren’t sure, the headline should seal the deal. “Sure … everybody notices the one black sheep! The ad copy goes on to explain that’s why their new program is designed to get rid of every bad beer retailer.”
Odd that they made no mention of retailers who manage their beer inventory LIFO instead of FIFO (biggest sin of all!).
From the way the blurry text reads, it looks like the main objects of their disaffection (my homage to a WWII-era song “The Object of My Affection”) were “dive” bars at which brawls were common. For sure, in many of that group’s ads that Jay’s posted the last year or so, the word “wholesome” appears far more than one would expect.
Keep ’em coming, Jay – “camp” never goes out of style