For the last of Schlitz week, Friday’s ad is one from 1951. This one’s supposed to funny with the husband was letting his wife use a newspaper to keep it from raining on her hair and instead is holding their umbrella over the bottles of Schlitz in the bag in front of them. Oddly enough, the man with beer is holding his pipe in his mouth upside down. Is that perhaps to keep it dry?
Without intending it, this week has become a Schlitz week, and Thursday’s ad is one from 1956. The waiter’s uniform is hilarious. Are they on a cruise ship? And I love the hat on the woman. Actually, the expression on all their faces are priceless. The tagline, “Ask for Schlitz … see why it outsells all other beers” is a classic taunt. Schlitz is also featured on the cover of the menu that the man is holding.
Wednesday’s ad is also for Schlitz and is most likely from the late 1940s or early fifties. The tagline, “When gracious hospitality calls for the best …” is a little odd. The woman has a maid or servant, but they’re still serving their guests just the bottles. It’s funny how the definition of gracious wouldn’t include a glass for the beer, but it was a different time, I guess. And where exactly is the woman in the yellow dress looking? She’s looking past the maid, but at what?
Tuesday’s ad is also for Schlitz and is from the 1960s. It features a woman with an odd look on her face opening the pull-top cans, just because she likes to, or as it says in bold print, “I just love to open ’em.” There are 14 open cans of beer shown in the ad. What do you think, did she drink them all?
Monday’s ad is for Schlitz and will likely make anyone from CAMRA do a double take. Because the ad’s slogan is “That what I call real beer … no wonder it made Milwaukee famous.” But I don’t think most real ale or cask-conditioned fans are likely to agree. I’m not sure when the ads is from exactly, but given the scene I’d have to guess late 1940s or early fifties.
Today’s works of art is part of a series of American Icons by Bob Kessel. It’s am abstract portrait of the writer Charles Bukowski, who was known to drink a little alcohol from time to time.
Kessel writes of the portrait. “Appropriately, Buk is shown drinking a bottle of beer.” I love its simplicity of both palette — just red, white and blue plus yellow — and the imagery, capturing the essence of Bukowski in the portrayal of him hoisting a beer to his lips at a bar. It reminds me of a cross between Piet Mondrian and Roy Lichtenstein.
Below, it’s show with a frame to better see the white space intended to be around the exterior of the artwork. Limited edition prints are available of this, and other portraits from the series, American Icons.
To see more of Kessel’s work, check out his website and also his WordPress blog.
Also, below is a poem entitled Beer by Bukowski, from my Beer Poetry database.
I don’t know how many bottles of beer
I have consumed while waiting for things
to get better
I don’t know how much wine and whisky
and beer
mostly beer
I have consumed after
splits with women—
waiting for the phone to ring
waiting for the sound of footsteps,
and the phone to ring
waiting for the sounds of footsteps,
and the phone never rings
until much later
and the footsteps never arrive
until much later
when my stomach is coming up
out of my mouth
they arrive as fresh as spring flowers:
“what the hell have you done to yourself?
it will be 3 days before you can fuck me!”
the female is durable
she lives seven and one half years longer
than the male, and she drinks very little beer
because she knows it’s bad for the figure.
while we are going mad
they are out
dancing and laughing
with horny cowboys.
well, there’s beer
sacks and sacks of empty beer bottles
and when you pick one up
the bottle fall through the wet bottom
of the paper sack
rolling
clanking
spilling gray wet ash
and stale beer,
or the sacks fall over at 4 a.m.
in the morning
making the only sound in your life.
beer
rivers and seas of beer
the radio singing love songs
as the phone remains silent
and the walls stand
straight up and down
and beer is all there is.
Our 25th Guinness poster by John Gilroy features a crab trying to figure out how to get hos claws around a pint of Guinness and, presumably, drink it. Perhaps that’s why the text at the bottom reads “Have this one with me!,” because he can’t do it alone.
Friday’s ad is more for a specific event, the Boogie Cup, than a beer or brewery. But as the World Cup resumes today, I thought it was appropriate. It was created by GGGrafik Design in 2005 for “Heidelberg’s Boogie Cup amateur soccer championship, infamous for the amount of beer consumed both on the pitch and on the terraces.” Here’s how they describe the creative process. “It’s also a deliberate homage to the great Herbert Leupin. It was voted one of the 100 Best Posters in 2005 from Germany, Switzerland and Austria and was the Gold Winner at the Graphis Poster Annual 2006.” I just thought it was cool.
Thursday’s ad is again for Pabst, from 1940. It’s one of a series from around that time period that were all inside of a blue ribbon. I love the slogan at the bottom: “It’s Blended … It’s Splendid!” The opening tagline is priceless, too. “Order it with Confidence … Serve it with Pride.” I love that smirk on the waiter. But how about the elaborate sandwich — 4 fancy toothpicks! And why is there no beer glass on that tray, just the bottle?
Wednesday’s ad is for Rheingold from 1969 and uses baseball and the signs of a good player, showing a few of the qualities one might look for in a good ballplayer. Then it applies the same idea to beer, saying “Look for the sign of a great beer! The Rheingold 10 minute head.” Look at that mug, it’s all head. A generous head, yes, but one that takes 10 minutes to subside (which is my presumption as to what they mean) seems like suspect advice to me. Two fingers is pretty much ideal for most beers, but more than that and you’ll lose too much carbonation and flavors, and Rheingold at that time probably didn’t have much to spare.
