Friday’s ad is for Guinness, from 1957. The ad shows two young couples having a picnic within spitting distance of Stonehenge which I imagine was as impossible in 1957 as it is today. Maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t believe they’d let anyone get so close to such a national treasure. I love the wild abandon with which the one dude is eating a chicken leg. I know the other guy is sporting an ascot, but is the chicken man wearing one, too, or did he tuck his tie in his shirt? And the dresses that the women are wearing are pretty fly, too, particularly the grey skirt with the jugs. But a picnic by Stonehenge? It’s true. “Life is worth living after a Guinness.”
Hi Jay
I love these old ADs. MG did another good one a few years before this.
In fact, it was common to stop by Stonehenge for a picnic lunch in the 1950s – particularly on the way to or from Cornwall. Though there was a ticket office, many would simply pull over and wander freely about the stones.
The barbed wire didn’t go up until about 1964, and restriction from the inner stones themselves didn’t go into effect until 2000.
Neil
Thanks for that Neil. I knew someone would have to know if you could picnic there, and when you no longer could.