
Monday’s ad is for Pilsner Urquell, from what looks like the 1940s or 50s. I certainly don’t recall Pilsner Urquell using that “P” logo with the barrel and gate symbol. But I love the classy pin-up art.

By Jay Brooks
By Jay Brooks

Friday’s ad is also for Hamm’s, showing their support for the local baseball team, the Minnesota Twins in 1961. It actually looks like the ad may have been on the back of a game program. Either way, the “Win! Twins! We’re with you all the way” rah-rah sentiment” was undoubtedly designed to foster brand loyalty.

By Jay Brooks

Thursday’s ad is also for Budweiser, this one from just after Prohibition ended in 1933. Expressing the celebratory mood that prohibition was finally over, but that “Something More Than Beer Is Back,” hopefully not meaning just polo. No, what they’re trying to get across is that with beer’s return, it was now “For those with a Flair for Good Living.” But I guess that means people who play polo. Hmm.

By Jay Brooks
By Jay Brooks
By Jay Brooks

Monday’s ad is for Falstaff cans from, given the pull tabs on the cans, the mid-to-late 1960s. I assume this was a football play on words. It’s a simple, clean ad, almost unusual for that time. I also like the tagline at the bottom of the ad. “Beer after beer, the choicest product of the brewers’ art. Everywhere.”

By Jay Brooks

Friday’s ad is the end of this week’s theme of Acme Beer and illustrator George Petty. These two works of art were most likely used in beer advertising, though exactly when and for which brewery is a mystery. Petty did a number of ads for Acme Beer, so that seems like the best guess, but I really can’t be sure. Still, they’re great, stylized paintings with beer.
Here’s the first one, in which a man and woman clink their beer glasses together in a toast.

And the second, also showing a finely dressed couple at night.

By Jay Brooks

Thursday’s ad is still another one for Acme Beer, this one from their 1930s “Dietetically Non-Fattening” campaign, and this one was also done by famed pin-up artist George Petty. I’ve featured a painting of this ad before, but I recently found how it was used in an actual ad. I love the qualification on its status as a diet drink, which is that it’s “relatively so, compared with other foods.”

By Jay Brooks

Wednesday’s ad is yet another one for Acme Beer, another in the series of “High I.Q. (It Quenches) ads. This one was done by famed pin-up artist George Petty, who did several ads for Acme. In contrast to yesterday’s matronly ad, this one shows an attractive woman, dressed provocatively, resting in the crescent moon high above the world with a glass of beer in her hand. I can’t imagine Miller was very happy about this ad. But I like it just fine, but that’s probably because of my low I.Q.

By Jay Brooks
