Monday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1950. It’s one of Pabst’s “What’ll You Have” ads, but featuring a sports celebrity, George Mikan. In post-war America, Mikan was known as “Mr. Basketball” and was the Lakers’ center when they still played in a state with lots of lakes. He’s considered a pioneer of modern basketball, and retired as the all-time leading scorer. The NBA actually altered the rules of the game to reduce his dominance and he was directly responsible for the three-point line was and partially for the shot clock. And apparently he drank Pabst.

Thursday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1963. The ad apparently is meant to look older, from the century before the Sixties. But the notion that “old-time flavor likes you best” strikes me as hilariously odd.

Monday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1954. It’s from their “What’ll You Have” series,and this one shows three recently caught fish frying in a pan on the grill. Is is me or is that bucket of ice that the beer is cooling in a little close to the flame? That ice is going to melt pretty quickly.

Wednesday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1947. Part of a series of ads Pabst did around that time, all showing an illustration inside of a big blue ribbon. This one shows a fisherman pulling out some cans of Pabst that he’d been cooling in the river while he fished.

Monday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1954. With the title “When It’s ‘Your Turn’ To Entertain…” and part of their long-running “What’ll You Have” series, they suggest that just what you need to to “dazzle your friends” is a Virginia ham with a special glaze made with beer. The ad helpfully includes the recipe to make the “Blue Ribbon Ham Glaze” to make your party a bit hit.

Wednesday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1953. The ad features Mr. and Mrs. Gregory Peck, who according to the ad served Pabst “in the Modern Bar of their Santa Monica Home.” Funny you don’t see celebrity ads for beer much these days.

Monday’s ad is for Pabst, from 1954, part of their “What’ll You Have” series. The ad features a glass of Pabst paired with “Chicken in the Basket.” That’s some shiny-looking chicken. One interesting thing about the ad copy is I’m used to beer being “paired” with food, but here they say this. “Teamed with any food, distinctive Pabst Blue Ribbon makes meal-time an extra pleasure.” That’s an interesting way of putting it. One’s not paired with the other, but instead the two teamed up together.

Friday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1954. It’s from their “What’ll You Have” series that started around the same time. In this case, the answer to that question is “fish.”

Wednesday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1943. Pabst used these freaky anthropomorphic humanized ribbons with faces for a number of years and I always find them more than a little creepy and unsettling. This was in the middle of World War 2, when collecting scrap metal for the war effort. Apparently my mother was a decorated scrap collector. She would have been 6 in 1943 and her father, my grandfather, was an automobile mechanic, meaning there was lots of scraps around.