Saturday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1907. In the first decade of the 20th century, Schlitz Brewing, then one of the largest breweries in the U.S. after the industry had shrunk from over 4,000 to around 1,500 in just 25 or so years, did a series of primarily text ads, with various themes. In this ad, Schlitz is once more extolling the virtues of spending more on “purity” than any other part of their brewing process. Before, I’d wondered how they;d even do that, but in this ad there’s at least somewhat of an answer. “We wash every bottle four times by machinery. We filter even the air in our cooling rooms. We sterilize every bottle after it is sealed.” And why do they do that? Apparently, it’s “Not to make the beer taste better, or look better.” In fact, they claim It’s “Not to secure any apparent advantage.” No, no, of course not.