Tuesday’s ad is for, I think, St. Pauli Girl. The ad’s text, “Die Drei Von St. Pauli,” translates roughly as “Three of the St. Pauli,” at least according to Google Translate. I’m not sure, but it appears to be three different beers from the Bavaria St. Pauli Brauerei. But at the bottom of each label, it also reads Brauerei Abzug, so who knows. I don’t much history of the St. Pauli brand before they introduced the eponymous girl in 1977, though it was 1982 when they started choosing a model each year to represent the brand. More importantly, who the hell are those three character standing in front of each bottle?
It’s not connected to the St Pauli Girl brand you get in the US. That has always been based in Bremen, as far as I know. Bavaria-St. Pauli is from Hamburg. Astra, which you can see on the left there, is still going. It has some very distinctive advertising, based on its origins in the Hamburg red light district. You might consider them for a future Beer In Ads post.
I’d guess that Abzug is the name of the proprietor. I’ve seen this before on German beer labels: the brand and the owner are billed separately, like how “Brauerei Heller” appears on Schlenkerla labels.
Has anyone ever done a blind taste test in which the American versions of Beck’s & St Pauli Girl are done side-by-side – the object being to find differences? For yrs I’ve opined (after having both more than once) that they’re identical brews w/different labels. For sure the St Pauli Girl “your first girl” TV ads 5-10 yrs ago were some of the best.