Sunday’s ad is for Genesee Beer, from 1970. “Every sip … like a trip to snow country,” with a cold mountain stream still filled with ice, but slowly starting to thaw. Who doesn’t want their beer to evoke that setting? Assuming, of course, the beer hasn’t actually frozen or is so close to freezing that we can no longer taste it. That would be bad.
Saturday’s ad is for Carling Black Label, from 1958. A man’s up a ladder, doing some sort of work around the house, presumably. The ad reads: “Time for a break!” Maybe it’s just me, but it seems the more prudent way to take that break might have been to climb down off the ladder first before enjoying a glass of beer. It doesn’t even look like one of those ladders where there are two sides making it relatively stable, at least from what we can see. Don’t drink and climb ladders seems like a good, if inelegant, rule of thumb. It’s also another instance of a “friendly” beer, stating. “It’s the friendly beer at the friendly, popular price.”
Friday’s ad is another one for Ballantine Ale, again from from 1940. This was one a series of historic scenes done in a clay diorama style. This one shows a pathfinder following a somewhat circuitous set of footprints forming three circles. What could it mean? Did he find a beer?
Thursday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1940. A bottle of Ballentine Ale sits in front of a framed picture of a 100-year old ship to celebrate Ballantine’s 100th anniversary. In fact, the ship is coming out of the frame, as is a red flag/handkerchief/whatever, which is actually pretty cool. The subheading, “The Flavor of Ballantine’s Ale is a Century Old — A Century Great” seems odd. I know they don’t mean it this way, but it strikes me that they’re saying the flavor is old, 100 years old, which doesn’t seem like much of a compliment.
Wednesday’s ad is for Ballantine Beer, from the 1970s. It’s a simple black and white ad showing a can of beer and a tagline enticing people to sing along. “And if you feel like singing …” is followed by their jingle that begins “Hey, get your cold beer.” Oddly enough, it does make me feel like singing.
Tuesday’s ad is for Anheuser-Busch Buck, from 1885. By “buck,” one presumes they mean bock and used a slightly alternate spelling. The lithograph was created by the Wittemann Brothers, Adolph and Herman, of New York. It’s odd poster, with the eagle and goat, or buck, looking almost garish or frightening, especially juxtaposed with the 1880s equivalent of a supermodel.
Monday’s ad is for Carling’s Black Label, from 1955. All it took was a shirt, a bowling ball, pin and whatever the hell is on top of the ball to make an abstract person holding a bottle of beer. In the mid-1950s, bowling was huge — a very high percentage of people not only bowled, but were involved in a weekly league. But another oddity I noticed was on the neck label, where it reads “Full 12 oz.” That seems strange, were there breweries using smaller than 12 oz. bottles that Carling felt the need to call attention to the fact that their bottles were a full 12 ounces?
Sunday’s ad is another one for the Barley and Malt Institute, also from 1959. This is the sixth ad I have from the now defunct trade group for barley growers. In this one a man sitting a bar, with the evening newspaper and bowl of pretzels in front of him, lights a match to fire up his cigarette as he glances to his left, watching the glass of beer he ordered as it’s just about finished being filled. It looks like the perfect way to end a workday, circa 1959.
Saturday’s ad is for the Barley and Malt Institute, from 1959. This is the fifth ad I have from the now defunct trade group for barley growers. In this one a woman is pouring a beer on the dock for a man sitting in boat of uncertain size, though it’s probably relatively small, and trying to grab the glass (glass?!?) mug even before she’s finished filling it. The tagline is similar to other Malt Institute ads, suggesting it was a series of ads: “Fun-Flavors your favorite beer—healthfully.” I’m not even sure that quite makes sense.
Friday’s ad is for Colt 45 malt liquor, from 1969. I guess they were playing off the popularity of the space race in 1969, when Neil Armstrong walked on the Moon. It’s a pretty weird ad, and I’m not sure about a lot of it. Why, for example, is the man just wearing a conservative black suit? And why is he surrounded by two odd-looking alien women in space suits behind a wall of Colt 45 cans. It certainly is “out of this world,” as the cheesy ad suggests.
