Saturday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1904. 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 recounts how you need to drink “ten glasses of fluid per day,” and that most people don’t drink enough. So what, you may be asking yourself. But not enough fluids means “too little to flush the body of its waste. The result is bad blood, nervousness, disease.” That’s why “the doctor says ‘Drink more.”
