Tuesday’s ad is another by famed Swiss illustrator Herbert Leupin. Like many of his others, I’m not sure what beer this ad is for or when it was created, though he worked mainly beginning in the late 1930s and then took up paintings around 1970. So we can safely say it was between those dates. The two glasses look like they could be separate pieces, since the blue backgrounds look just a hair different shades. But boy oh boy, Leupin sure could draw beer that looks good enough to drink.
It’s a Porter sort of day — being my son Porter’s birthday — so Monday’s ad is for Anchor Porter. It’s a simple, but effective, ad and it makes me thirsty just looking at it. Yum.
I love Google Images. You just never know what you’ll find and over the years I’ve found some truly odd images. And this has to be among the stranger finds. Apparently there are people obsessed with My Little Pony. I really shouldn’t be surprised, for pretty much anything you could name, people have turned their solitary obsession into a full-fledged hobby, with similar-minded people coming together from all over the globe. The internet has made this particularly easy, and I can only imagine that the sheer number of different groups, organizations, associations, clubs, etc. surrounding almost anything we could name, no matter how obscure, has exploded over the last decade. Anyway, I stumbled upon a My Little Pony imageboard — an internet forum — called Ponychan.
An entire thread titled “Alcohol Thread” began with “What is your drink of choice and why? Are you bastards even old enough to drink?” A fair question, given the only reason I am so very familiar with My Little Pony is because I have an 8-year old daughter. The thread includes images of ponies drinking beer and cider, as forum users express their favorite alcoholic drinks.
My wife informs me — I have no idea how she knows this — that there is an entire subset of adult males who are into My Little Pony known as “Bronies.” That’s more than a little creepy.
So here’s a few of the drinking ponies from the thread. I can only imagine the neo-prohibitionists would be going crazy if these were to see the light of day, emerging from the murky shadows of the internet. Children’s characters drinking? Oh, the horror!
But I’ll raise toast to the ponies. Drunk ponies could only be more interesting than I remember them, having to endure their sober exploits with my daughter Alice. Thank goodness she’s moved past the little ponies, but sadly what’s she’s into now — iCarly, Victorious and the Winx Club — are hardly much better.
Searching for some images this morning, I stumbled upon this fun Home Brew Alphabet, created by recent home brew practitioner John, who started a blog — the Home Brew Manual. He illustrated each letter of the alphabet for an aspect of homebrewing. It would make a great addition as a framed print in a kid’s room, though probably the child of a brewer or beer lover.
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, another fairly recent ad, this one from 1984. Despite its somewhat sexist theme, I confess I have fond memories of this ad from when I was a young adult. It’s funny seeing the portable CD player and compact discs sitting in the sun. That was fairly new technology at the time. I vividly remember that a few years before this ad, when I was working as a music buyer for a chain of record stores, CBS Records gave us a demonstration of the new compact disc they were about to debut. I also recall being blown away by how clear and hiss-free the sound was.
Thursday’s ad is for Molson, a fairly recent ad, from 2004. The ad is extolling the virtues of Molson’s “Twin Label Technology,” which as far as I can tell means you can turn the bottle around and there’s a second label with a funny saying on it. With labels like “It’s Over,” “I’m Not Wearing Any Underwear” and “Nice Mullet,” it’s clever but isn’t reason enough to buy the beer inside. It seems like mainstream beer companies spend far more resources on their labels, advertising and marketing than the beer itself.
Wednesday’s ad is for Miller Lite, from 1999. The ad features model/actress Rebecca Romjin and the tagline “Pilsner is a type of beer. Kind of like Rebecca is a kind of woman.” Does that mean Rebecca’s NOT a woman? Because Miller Lite is hardly a pilsner. Calling Miller Lite a “true pilsner” is like saying a cardboard stand-up of Rebecca is the real flesh and blood model.
Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1951. The ad shows a circus elephant so enamored of a Schlitz billboard that he’s trying to drink the beer off of the ad. A policeman is running up to the elephant, but his trainer is just shrugging his shoulders. With beer this good, what can he do? At least that’s the idea. I’m not sure I’d take advice on what makes a good beer from an elephant.
Monday’s ad is for Schaefer, though I don’t know when the ad originally ran. The ad plays on Schaefer’s history, with this tagline. “On September 3, 1842 our first customer bought 5 gallons of Schaefer beer. It was the start of the one beer to have when you’re having more than one.”
Friday’s ad is another one for Hamm’s, this time from 1965. This one shows a large bubble forming in the top of the bottle, and in its reflection you can see an outdoor setting by a lake surrounded by a forest. And how about that foam in the glass? Pretty impressive.
