Today’s ad was painted by one of the most famous science fiction/fantasy artists of all time, Boris Vallejo. If you don’t know who he he is, then you’ve never read the genre, because he’s worked for nearly everybody and has also done a number of album covers. His most famous characters include Conan, Doc Savage and Tarzan.
According to the biography at his home page:
Born in Lima, Peru, Boris attended the National School of Fine Arts in his native country before immigrating to the United States in 1964. He has since done a great volume of work for the Fantasy field, having worked for virtually every major publishing house with a science fiction/fantasy line. Boris has also illustrated for album covers, video box art and motion picture advertising.
You can also see a lot of his art at his official website (along with his wife, artist Julie Bell) and chronologically at the Boris Vallejo Gallery.
If I had to guess, I’d say this may have been for something internal at A-B because notice that the man in the painting, who may or may not be August Busch III, is crushing a can of Heineken, undoubtedly a primary target of Michelob’s marketing efforts. There’s also a strange triangular-shaped object between the two beers that resembles a Toblerone package, but I can’t figure what that might be. Anybody have any ideas?
I’d say the triangle thing would be the name-plate for his desk.
I considered that, but then why is it so close to the back of his desk instead of the front? And why is at an angle? Painters rarely do anything randomly, so the composition must be intentional. I’m still perplexed.
If you look at the near end of the object, it almost looks like a folded piece of paper.
Michelob used to have a tap handle in this same shape: Triangle.
Im not sure of the significance of the shape, other than it was different than most handles at the time.
Why they didnt just add the brand to the handle is puzzling.