Today in 1997, the Boston Beer Co. took possession of the Hudephol-Schoenling Brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio. One of their most well-known brands was Little Kings Cream Ale, so I found an ad for Little Kings from the early 1980s for Monday’s ad. It shows a scary-looking costumed Little King “introducing … The Little Kings Mini Rocket Car.” It was based on a real rocket car that the brewery sponsored, driven by Larry Nagel. Nagel has some nice reminiscing about the rocket car and even the brewery’s involvement in his Flickr gallery. Here’s his commentary for this ad:
Little Kings cream ale brewery sponsored my rocket car. Here is a picture of the promotional go kart, a mini replica of my rocket car they had built. Little Kings was a family owned brewery based in Cincinnati, OH and treated me like part of the family. Every year in Champaign, IL, a college town, they have Little Kings day. The bars open at 6am and people would belly up to the bar and have a bowl of cheerios with Little Kings instead of milk. I had the Pocket Rocket outside on display and when I went inside the bar, sitting there with all the kids eating his cereal drowned in beer, was Bill Schoenling, owner of Schoenling Brewing. I had a whole new respect for this man. Talk about staying in touch with your demographic.
