Thursday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1940. A bottle of Ballentine Ale sits in front of a framed picture of a 100-year old ship to celebrate Ballantine’s 100th anniversary. In fact, the ship is coming out of the frame, as is a red flag/handkerchief/whatever, which is actually pretty cool. The subheading, “The Flavor of Ballantine’s Ale is a Century Old — A Century Great” seems odd. I know they don’t mean it this way, but it strikes me that they’re saying the flavor is old, 100 years old, which doesn’t seem like much of a compliment.
It is pretty cool. It is nice to see an ale ad, when the country was going to the lagers. I love that Ballantine’s sold India Pale Ale long before most of us ever heard of IPA.
As always, thanks for sharing these Jay.
Agree w/Beer Can on the coolness of the ad overall; agree w/Jay that the copywriter could have done a better job with the phrasing, to wit: The recipe for Ballantine’s Ale is a century old. Its flavor is a century great (which would fit on one line)..