Wednesday’s ad is a trade ad, by the United States Brewing Industry Foundation, from 1942. After prohibition ended, the industry started doing PSA-type ads in an attempt to create goodwill for beer and brewers. They would later go on to do a fairly sophisticated series of ads between 1946 and 1956, known unofficially as Beer Belongs. Officially, they were “The Home Life in America” series, consisting of 120 ads, with a new ad running in major periodicals each month. Last year, for my Beer in Ads series, I featured every one of them. But in the years before that, the U.S. Brewing Industry Foundation (a precursor to the original Brewer’s Association) dabbled with a variety of similar ads promoting the industry as a whole. These were especially popular during World War 2, and in fact they even won an award from the government for some of these ads. Most of the ads were black and white, although a few were in color, though usually in a minimal way, with a few colors accented rather than being in full color.
In this ad, “me” is a man named Mike Anders is sitting, faces us, with his lunch pail on his knees. He looks good, sturdy blue collar stock, a hard-working American. He’s in his forties, married, with four kids. He works hard, he’s supporting the war effort. But he needs to relax to, so after dinner he’ll “get together with a couple of friends. For a quiet sensible evening. Lots of good talk … and maybe another glass of good ale or beer. We’ll take it easy.”
