Wednesday’s ad is for Pabst, from 1951. Apparently playing bridge with another couple used to be huge, but it didn’t reach my generation. My parents occasionally had people over to play Pinochle, but never bridge as far as I know. So I don’t even know if that’s a good hand.
Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1904. The ad is all text, apart from a small logo in the corner. It’s just a notice that drinking beer will keep you healthy, expressed in the headline as “Beer Keeps One Well.” But wait, there’s more. “It is a noticeable fact that those who brew beer, and who drink what they want of it, are usually healthy men.” But I love tis statement. “The malt and the hops are nerve foods.” Nerve foods?
Monday’s ad is for Kent Ale, from 1935. It was made by the G. Krueger Brewing Co., who was the first to debut beer in cans earlier in the same year. Tis was the third of their beers they put in a can, after the first test in their Virginia market was so successful. What’s really interesting is the described the beer as an “India Pale Type Stock Ale,” which apparently has “tangy, English-tavern flavor.” I would have liked to have tasted that one.
Sunday’s ad is by the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, from 1941. This was early in the industry’s ads promoting beer, and would have been after the start of World War 2, but before Pearl Harbor and America’s entrance into the war. I imagine it would have been a time of uncertainty and anxiety, so it’s interesting that they picked up on that, and suggested something we all now, that when you’re feeling stressed, a beer can help you relax, slow down and feel a little better. So while it would never occurred to me to say so, there really is peace in beer. How cool is that?
Saturday’s ad is for Dow Old Stock Ale, from 1937. Dow Breweries was from Quebec, Canada, but after an incident in 1965, the brewery was acquired by Carling O’Keefe, who shut down the brand in March of 1966. In the ad, a couple is playing cards (Bridge?) at a card table as one of the men is pouring beer for everyone at the table. Seems like a nice way to spend an evening pre-World War 2.
Friday’s ad is for Alpen Brau Bottled Beer, brewed by the Independent Breweries Co. of St. Louis, from 1916. A simple, but cool illustration.
Thursday’s ad is for the Lemp Brewery of St. Louis, from 1912, and specifically their original Falstaff bottled beer. I especially love the expression of the model in the inset picture, she’s a peach, but it almost looks like she’s taunting us. And that inset picture has its own inset picture, a portrait presumably of the Shakespearean character Falstaff. Or it may be a framed photo of Falstaff on the table. Either way, he’s there there, even though he’s not exactly much of a role model, usually described as being “fat, vain, boastful, and [a] cowardly knight, he spends most of his time drinking at the Boar’s Head Inn with petty criminals.”
Wednesday’s ad is for Griesedieck Bros. Brewery, from 1939. It’s a bit of a dull ad, and that background is a sickly yellow color. Although I do love that the beer is not just mellow, but double-mellow. It’s “made mellow in the brewing, kept mellow by the removal of air in the bottle.” The ad copy just keeps getting better, which at least partly makes up for the lousy graphics. “It’s always first for thirst, always right for real refreshment.” Just saying the brewery’s name — if you can even pronounce it — is “the passport to pleasure.”
Tuesday’s ad is for Carling Black Label, from 1958. It was during the “Mabel, Black Label” period of time, but was from a different ad campaign with the tagline “People try it … and they like it.” A couple — I assume they’re a couple since they’re wearing coordinated outfits; his socks match her sweater — is working in their garden. I don’t know what he’s doing up on that ladder, but he’s staying up there to take a break, and his wife is handing him a beer. Staying up on the ladder doesn’t seem like much of a break, or is that just me?
Monday’s ad is for Coors, from 1979. Today, of course, was opening day for baseball. This Coors Banquet Beer ad is pretty simple, a baseball, a baseball glove and a can of beer poured into a mug. Beer and baseball, what better simple pleasures on a spring day could there be?
