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You are here: Home / Art & Beer / Beer In Ads #2664: Take Some Home … It’s Sugar-Free*

Beer In Ads #2664: Take Some Home … It’s Sugar-Free*

June 7, 2018 By Jay Brooks


Thursday’s ad is for Old Reading Beer, from the 1940s, I think. The ad is by famed pinup artist Alberto Vargas and shows a woman in a skintight skimpy outfit (to today’s eyes it looks like a modest one-piece bathing suit) with a belt. She’s also holding a hat. The tagline starts with “From the heart of the Pennsylvania Dutch Country.” Reading Beer was my hometown brewery growing up, although it closed when I was a junior in high school. The most interesting part though is their other claim. “Take Some Home … It’s Sugar-Free*. I’m sure that asterisk is important, but I’m not sure what it refers to. That part of the ad is missing and I can’t find many other examples. So far all of the similar ads include the asterisk but no additional information as you’d expect. Maybe at the bottom in a very tiny font, it says “just kidding.”

reading-beer-cardboard-sugar-free

Filed Under: Art & Beer, Beers Tagged With: Advertising, Health & Beer, History, Pennsylvania



Comments

  1. Jess Kidden says

    June 19, 2018 at 3:41 am

    Similar ads for Old Reading Beer with that artwork (which also identified the model as “Mary Cole, famous Vargas girl”) contained the footnote:

    * CONTAINS NO FERMENTABLE SUGAR

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