Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1945, and features as a backdrop an illustration of the grand canyon. With the main headline, “Every sip tells you what words can’t,” the idea is that the view is so incredibly indescribable, just like the Budweiser. The side tagline is “Remember the Sunsets … you Could Never Describe?” Same deal with the beer, I guess.
Wednesday’s ad is for Hamm’s, the Smooth and Mellow Beer,” also from 1947. It’s a fun post-war ad showing two couples having a backyard barbecue, with odd-looking wooden-keg mugs on (at the bottom at least) a brick-covered tray. One curious question. There are four people show in the back yard. There are four bottles of Hamm’s on the tray, along with an equal number of mugs. BUt unless one of them is Mr. Fantastic (from the Fantastic Four) then there’s a fifth person in the house not pouring themselves a beer. I want to know his or her story. Who is the unseen fifth wheel?
Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1947. It’s from the series of mishaps where people are more concerned that nothing happens to the beer than whatever else is going wrong. In this one, it’s a windy day and a man carrying not one, but two, six-packs of Schlitz has just lost his hat. He could reach for it … or he could save the Schlitz from falling. The three by-standers all seem to be reaching to save the beer. It must have ben weird to live in a time when you expected to wear a hat at all times outdoors.
Monday’s ad is also for Ballantine Ale, this one from 1948. There’s a nice illustration of a bottle of Ballantine Ale and two beer glasses in the foreground. The background shows a well-dressed couple out to dinner, with the waiter presenting a bottle of beer like wine, which is both weird and awesome at the same time. It may be “an Old American Custom,” but somehow I don’t see them looking for the Borromean rings on that white tablecloth.
Friday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1947. It’s from their late-40s diorama series, this one showing the most likely apocryphal origin of the Ballantine logo, told in a poem:
Step back a hundred years and more,
And take your place inside yon door.That’s Peter Ballantine at the table,
A brewer from Scotland, skilled and able.He’s testing his ale — and now you’ll see
How the 3-ring trade mark came to be.One healthy drink, “Aye lads,” says he,
“This ale o’ mine ha ‘PUR-R-RITY!”A second drink of his fine old brew,
“Ah,” he declares, “It ha’ BODY, too!”A third drink now, see him slowly savor,
“An’ sur-r-rely,” he says,
“It ha’ FLAVOR-R-R!”The spying 3 rings on the table dark,
“Lads,” cries Peter,
“I ha’ my mar-r-rk.”
That would have been 1840. Ah, to be a fly on the wall.
Thursday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1948. The tagline, “A classic flavor,” is reinforced — I guess — by the beer’s proximity to a shelf of books which one supposes must be classic books, especially with the bust of Shakespeare holding up the books.
Wednesday’s ad is for Ruppert beer — which is “the ‘slow-aged’ beer!” It’s from 1947 and shows a simple cartoon of an apparently long-winded speech that is going on and on, causing one listener to nod off and the other to check his watch. Like Ruppert, they’re in no rush. The claim that “Ruppert beer is aged s-l-o-w-l-y” is a curious one. Ignoring relativity, I’m pretty sure time is a constant, at least on planet beer, and the beer can’t age any slower or faster than the clock runs. You can age it for a shorter amount of time, or a longer amount of time, but that’s a different kettle of isinglass.
Tuesday’s ad is for Goebel beer, from 1951. Having just been through California gold country, the mining illustration, by George Shephard, was fun to see, though I’m not sure I see the connection to the text, “Nationally famous for good taste.” But the real gem is the claim just below the beer’s name in the inset box, “it’s Mello-ized.” I want to find more drinks that have been Mello-ized. That just has to be a good thing.
Monday’s ad is for Duvel, though I’m not sure if they ever actually ran it. But since this is ad number 666, I wanted to go with something devilish. So this is a recent creation, but it’s pretty clever.
Friday’s ad is another one for Rheingold Beer, this one from 1952, featuring Miss Rheingold for that year, Anne Hogan. In this ad, she’s piloting a sailboat, behind the wheel. She must be the captain of the shop; after all, she’s wearing the hat.
