Wednesday’s ad is for “Rheingold Beer,” from 1954. This ad was made for the Rheingold Brewery, which was founded by the Liebmann family in 1883 in New York, New York. At its peak, it sold 35% of all the beer in New York state. In 1963, the family sold the brewery and in was shut down in 1976. In 1940, Philip Liebmann, great-grandson of the founder, Samuel Liebmann, started the “Miss Rheingold” pageant as the centerpiece of its marketing campaign. Beer drinkers voted each year on the young lady who would be featured as Miss Rheingold in advertisements. In the 1940s and 1950s in New York, “the selection of Miss Rheingold was as highly anticipated as the race for the White House.” The winning model was then featured in at least twelve monthly advertisements for the brewery, beginning in 1940 and ending in 1965. Beginning in 1941, the selection of next year’s Miss Rheingold was instituted and became wildly popular in the New York Area. In this ad, from the summer of 1954, they’re teasing the 1955 Miss Rheingold contest with the headline “Soon you will be able to vote for the next Miss Rheingold.” The full page ad also shows the previous fifteen Miss Rheingolds, from 1940 to 1954, which is all the ones I’ve features here so far. So who will be the next Miss Rheingold?
