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You are here: Home / Art & Beer / Beer In Ads #190: Tennent’s We’ll Hold It

Beer In Ads #190: Tennent’s We’ll Hold It

September 8, 2010 By Jay Brooks

ad-billboard
Wednesday’s ad is for the Scottish lager Tennent’s. Given the bottle, I’m guessing this is an old ad, maybe late 19th century. With the two dogs, the tagline “Give us your business & we’ll hold it” is pretty funny.

the-national-archives-tennents-lager

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, History, Scotland, UK



Comments

  1. aCA says

    May 16, 2011 at 11:16 am

    I guess I must be being very dense, but I’ve never understood the joke in this advert (a copy of it adorns my local). A few of us talked it over, we reckon it’s something to do with “dog’s business” as a euphemism for poo, but then what’s the holding referring to? Or are they guard dogs ‘holding’ your business?

    Forgive my ignorance!

    • Unto Toivainen says

      May 14, 2013 at 8:55 pm

      I’m not English speaking person so I might be totally wrong.

      I have thought that this refers to idiom: “Mind your own business”. So the ad could be translated to “Tell us your secret, we will keep it”.

      But as I said I’m not English speaking so this translation is more guessing the knowledge.

  2. Matilda says

    May 21, 2014 at 3:12 am

    I have this sign in my kitchen. Love dogs and beer 😉 But have no idea what the slogan really stands for. Can anyone explain, please?

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