Saturday’s ad is a trade ad, by the United States Brewing Industry Foundation, from 1940s. 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, showing an idyllic farm, it appears that they’re trying to change the image of bars as men’s clubs, dark and dank. The headline, “A wholesome beverage, it deserves to be sold only in wholesome surroundings.” The later mention that a modern invention, “a new kind of tavern brings you good beer and ale in clean, wholesome surroundings.” It’s an interesting effort, and obviously they didn’t do away with the dive bar (thank goodness) but it did herald an age that had several different kinds of bars, just like today.
