Beer In Ads #670: Step Back A Hundred Years And More

Friday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1947. It’s from their late-40s diorama series, this one showing the most likely apocryphal origin of the Ballantine logo, told in a poem:

Step back a hundred years and more,
     And take your place inside yon door.

That’s Peter Ballantine at the table,
     A brewer from Scotland, skilled and able.

He’s testing his ale — and now you’ll see
     How the 3-ring trade mark came to be.

One healthy drink, “Aye lads,” says he,
     “This ale o’ mine ha ‘PUR-R-RITY!”

A second drink of his fine old brew,
     “Ah,” he declares, “It ha’ BODY, too!”

A third drink now, see him slowly savor,
     “An’ sur-r-rely,” he says,
               “It ha’ FLAVOR-R-R!”

The spying 3 rings on the table dark,
     “Lads,” cries Peter,
               “I ha’ my mar-r-rk.”

That would have been 1840. Ah, to be a fly on the wall.