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Beer In Ads #153: Today’s Hampden Is The Finest Yet!

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Monday’s ad is from 1959 and is for a brewery I’d not heard of before, Hampden Brewery of Willimansett, Massachusetts. The guy at the sparse desk is Karl H. Bissell, Sr., chairman of the board for the brewery, though at that time it was known as Hampden-Harvard Brewing. Eventually Piels bought it but the brewery was shut down in 1975. Curiously, it’s been restarted as a craft brewery earlier this year as Hampden Brewing Co.

Frankly, Bissell looks more like James Carville and I’m not quite sure how this guy with his cueball noggin sitting behind a big, empty desk was meant to inspire brand loyalty or switching brands. And the slogan “New England’s Finest Beer At New England’s Fairest Price” is not exactly Shakespeare, either.

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They appear to have brewed ales and lagers.

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Beer In Art #85: John Skelton’s Guinness

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Today’s works of art are by John Skelton, an Irish artist who passed away last year, in 2009. Born in 1925, Skelton studied art in Belfast, Northern Ireland and later at St. Martins School of Art, London, where he began his career in the 1940s. The first painting of Skelton’s I stumbled upon is not part of the works featured in his online gallery, it’s title is Aran Pintmen. There’s a Guinness sign above a half dozen lads at the bar drinking their pints of Guinness that reads “Guinness Is Good For You” in Gaelic.

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Here is the Guinness painting. Below is a larger version in a frame on a wall.

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Several other of his paintings were also set in Irish pubs

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Donegal Man. Killibegs, Co. Donegal, from 1999.

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A Corner In A Kerry Pub, from 2001.

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A Drink With Brendan, from 2001.

To see more of Skelton’s work, check out his paintings at Osin Gallery, where you can also read his biography. The artist’s son Michael is also setting up a new website, John Skelton Online, to honor his father’s memory and his legacy.

Beer In Ads #152: Phoebe Cates For Asahi

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Friday’s ad ends Bud week early and is a bit of a departure for what’s usually featured here. I try not to use overtly male-oriented ads but today is an exception. We all have celebrities, male and female, that we’re more attracted to than others. For me, one of my most enduring starstruck crushes has been on Phoebe Cates, most famous for Fast Times at Ridgemont High and Gremlins. But many actors also did ads in Japan, which during the 1980s was quite lucrative so many who wouldn’t do ads in the U.S. just couldn’t turn down doing them in Japan, and Phoebe Cates was no exception. She did a series of ads, usually in a bikini, for Asahi Breweries sometime during the 80s. Also, I should point out that the reason for all this is today is Phoebe Cates’ 47th birthday.

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The campaign also included television spots, like this one on YouTube. Since it was for their Asahi Draft Beer, they used the slogan “Live Beer” in the TV spots and on branded beer glasses in the print ads, such as the ones below.

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Sometimes in a big floppy hat, sometimes not.

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Most of the ads I’ve seen have been cropped and don’t show the full ad, sad to say.

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Beer In Ads #151: Budweiser, What An Acorn Needs Is Management

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Thursday’s ad continues Bud week and is from 1937 and uses an odd bit of logic, equating an oak tree’s management of its seeds — or acorns — with the growing barley for making beer. I’m all for the idea that quality ingredients are necessary to brew a quality beer, but the analogy seems stretched a bit. There’s also an impassioned thank you from Adolphus Busch III for supporting American barley farmers and hop growers through buying Budweiser, the nation having just come out of the Great Depression. Finally, I love the reference to Shakespeare in the tagline at the bottom; “As You Like It .. In Bottles … In Cans.”

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Beer In Ads #148: Budweiser, There’s Absolutely Nothing Like It …

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Monday’s ad is for Budweiser from most likely the 1950s, or possibly post-war forties. Fishing is the theme and the tagline is “There’s nothing like it … absolutely nothing.” She looks like she’s ready for fishing, even with the bamboo rod. The dude, on the other hand, looks like he’s dressed for a nightclub, or bowling maybe.

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Beer In Art #84: Ali Spagnola’s Free Beer Paintings

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Today’s works of art are by Ali Spagnolia, who’s taking a whole new approach to getting her art out and into the public’s hands. A graduate of Carnegie Mellon with a degree in fine art, Spagnola paints a new one-square foot work of art every day. As she puts it, “I want to make art but I don’t want to store it. I would be thrilled for the world to have it. Plus conceptually, it helps me execute the objectives and beliefs I have asserted in my artist statement quite well.” In other words, she’ll do a custom painting for you free of charge, and even ship it to you, free of charge, not that she doesn’t encourage or appreciate donations. By my reckoning, she’s done five beer-themed paints so far, though I’ll be asking her for a sixth.

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The first Beer painting, her ninth work in the series at that point.

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Here’s one of a beer can.

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A second round of beer.

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A beer bottle.

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A third mug of beer, which looks to be her most popular design.

To see more of Spagnola’s work, check out her blog, Ali’s Art Adventure. You can also see all of the other daily paintings, all 1620 of them, so far, along with many other artworks at her portfolio. There’s also a store where you can buy things, such as her CD or DVD of 60 one-minute drinking songs.

Guinness Ad #26: Lumberjack

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Our 26th Guinness poster by John Gilroy features a lumberjack energized by drinking his Guinness so that he’s able to fell a large tree with one fell swoop of the axe. “Guinness For Strength,” indeed.

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Unfortunately this is the best image of this ad I could find. If anyone has a better one, please let me know or send it my way. There’s also a variation on the lumberjack theme, with the same artwork but a different slogan, “My Goodness, My Guinness.”

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