Wednesday’s holiday ad is for William Younger’s Scotch Ale, from 1931. Father William I understand, but what the hell is he riding? It looks like an ostrich made of a Christmas ornament with Christmas crackers for legs and a tail of either mistletoe or a sprig of pine tree. The whatever it is, the creature’s wearing a sort of dunce cap with a decorative ball of yarn on top. And lastly, what is on the beast’s neck? Perhaps this is what you see if drink too much Scotch Ale.
Tuesday’s holiday ad is for Budweiser, from 1953. The first Christmas ad for 2015 is a fairly simple one, showing quite the holiday spread with twelve bottles of Budweiser and a big display piece of the Clydesdales and a beer wagon being pulled by Santa Claus.
Monday’s ad is another one for Guinness, from 1952. “If seven men … sailed seven ships from China to Peru.” Those are some pretty small boats, and none of those boatmen look particularly seaworthy either.
Sunday’s ad is for Guinness, from 1952. “If seven men … with seven wives were walking at the zoo.” I can only assume the zoo is located at St. Ives. Still, it’s a fun ad with callbacks to many of the earlier iconic Guinness animals.
Saturday’s ad is for Heineken, from 2006. I’m not sure I quite understand it. Heineken is “guaranteed to whisk you away to hotter climes.” So how does that make it the “devil’s secret,” have anything to do with fire or make the tagline “get spoiled” make any sense. But it is very colorful, with brights golds and reds. And why would you want to associate the color of beer with fire at at any rate?
Friday’s ad is for Lone Star Beer, from 1953. It’s a pretty minimal ad, but has some nice touches: the steam whistle, the glass of beer and the fun typography.
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1970. It’s a bright garish ad — perfect for the 1970s — mostly reds. There are red walls, a red floor and a bit of white and just a little blue, enough to make it red, white and blue, as in the Budweiser logo. The piano is a Bud logo’d piano and the tagline is “Why do more beer drinkers sing the praises of Budweiser than any other brand?” That’s followed by a nice double entendre: “You’ll know why after a bar or two.” So there are bars where people drink and bars that people sing. I guess this is both, but where are the eight people who left their half-full mugs of beer (and one who hasn’t even touched his) on top? I think they were there for the singing, had one taste of the beer, and fled.
Wednesday’s ad is for Grutli, from who knows when, perhaps the 1950s or 60s? The illustration was done by French artist Herve Moran, but I don’t know if Grutli is from there, or somewhere else? I do love how the man really loves his beer, going so far as to imagine a woman’s face is the foam. I love a good beer, but even for me that may be going a bit too far.
Tuesday’s ad is for Dow’s Kingsbeer, from 1955. Apparently they really know what their customers want, because it’s “Rice Brewed to the Canadian Taste.” Yum. That’s a hell of a slogan.
Monday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1954. That’s some seriously greasy looking fried chicken, and the fries don’t look much better. Still, it makes me hungry to look at it. And we’ve got another one of those magic bottles, the kind that fills the entire glass to overflowing, but is still only half empty.
