History

Beer In Ads #591: I Agree …

April 23, 2012

Monday’s ad is for Acme Beer from 1947. The ad features local San Francisco celebrity John Tyers, a star of the San Francisco Civic Light Opera Company. He agrees, “it’s the finest tasting Acme beer ever brewed,” especially with the “tangy flavor.”

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Guinness Ad #116: Welcome In The Home

April 21, 2012

Our 116th Guinness ad shows the intrepid zookeeper in his home surrounded by eight of his zoo animals, as if they live there when the zoo is closed. The seal is serving the zookeeper a Guinness on a tray as he relaxes on a comfy chair, legs up on a turtle. The tagline, “Guinness is [...]

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Beer In Ads #590: Lucky In Alaska

April 20, 2012

Friday’s ad is the fourth, and final, in our series of ads for Lucky Lager, brewed in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. This ad shows the “age-dated beer” being enjoyed in Alaska. You can tell because he’s wearing a parka and there’s a toem pole in the background. Actually, it says so on [...]

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Beer In Ads #589: Lucky Lumberjack

April 19, 2012

Thursday’s ad is the third in our series of ads for Lucky Lager, brewed in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. This ad shows the “age-dated beer” being enjoyed in a wooded setting by someone dressed as a lumberjack, as far as I can tell. “He cuts down trees, he eats his lunch, he [...]

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Beer In Ads #588: Lucky On The Hunt

April 18, 2012

Wednesday’s ad is the second in our series of ads for Lucky Lager, brewed in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. This ad shows the “age-dated beer” being enjoyed on what I’m guessing is a hunting trip in the woods.

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Beer In Ads #587: Lucky Down On The Ranch

April 17, 2012

Tuesday’s ad is the beginning of a series of ads for Lucky Lager, brewed in both San Francisco and Los Angeles, California. This ad shows the “age-dated beer” being enjoyed on some sort of ranch in the desert.

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Beer In Ads #586: Don’t Deny Yourself The Joys Of Beer

April 16, 2012

Monday’s ad is by well-known pin-up artist George Petty for Atlas Beer. And not just any Atlas Beer, but the one that’s a “Special Brew” with “Every Bottle Certified.” Curiously, after listing the benefits of beer, they suggest that you “Don’t Drink Home Brew.”

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Beer & Women By Anonymous

April 16, 2012

Today is the birthday of the late Alan Eames, one of the first Americans who wrote extensively about beer, especially in a serious way, mining history and culture for his topics. I never met Alan, though I talked to him on the phone a few times. When he passed away a couple of years ago, [...]

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Guinness Ad #115: Bear Up A Pole

April 14, 2012

Our 115th Guinness ad is a variation on an earlier zoo ad. This one is vertical, and omits some of the detail of the horizontal original, showing just the bear, who’s climbed up a pole with the zookeeper’s Guinness so he can drink it undisturbed. I love he look on his face, which seems to [...]

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Beer In Ads #585: Imported Original Budweiser Beer

April 13, 2012

Friday’s ad is for the Czech Budweiser, Budejovice, cheekily advertsing themselves as the “Imported Original Budweiser Beer.” I don’t know exactly when this ad is from, but it’s a safe bet it’s before A-B’s legal muscle was finely honed as it later became. But I do so love these old illustrations of industrial grandness.

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Beer In Ads #584: The Guru Of Good Times

April 12, 2012

Thursday’s ad is for Bud Light from 1988, during the Spuds McKenzie days. I never a big fan of Spuds, a booze hound, womanizing anthropomorphized pup. He debuted during the 1997 Super Bowl, a couple of years after Pete’s Wicked Ale started out with their dog Millie on their label. He was also a Bull [...]

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Beer In Ads #583: German Luxury Beer Becker

April 11, 2012

Wednesday’s ad is for a German pilsner, Becker, advertising in France. I have no idea when the ad is from, though 1970s is my guess based on the hat, the hair and the overt sexual overtones. It’s not exactly subtle. The ad copy, “Bière allemande de luxe,” translates as “German Luxury Beer.”

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Beer In Ads #582: Budweiser Girl

April 10, 2012

Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser from presumably the late 1800s. The well-dressed woman holding a beer surrounded by flowers, or a garden, or something like that was a staple of beer advertising in that era. That’s some red dress.

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Beer In Ads #581: Ballantine & Croquet

April 9, 2012

Monday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale from 1947. It’s part of the series they did in the forties where they used dioramas and odd-looking clay figures in various settings. This one shows a group of 19th century dandies playing croquet in an idyllic park-like setting, most likely some rich estate.

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Guinness Ad #114: The Piano Mover

April 7, 2012

Our 114th Guinness ad looks almost unfinished; more like a New Yorker cartoon than a polished ad. Showing a piano mover carrying not only the piano single-handedly, but also the piano player and his stool, he presumably he’s just enjoyed his bottle of “Guinness for Strength.”

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Beer In Ads #580: Beer Was First Brewed In A Hut

April 6, 2012

Friday’s ad is yet another old one for Schlitz, this one from 1912, and is, like the last two, touting brown bottles as the best package for beer. I have to admire the effort to educate consumers to think about the package their beer came in, something craft brewers did again roughly 70 years later. [...]

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