Wednesday’s ad is for Schlitz, one from their long-running “Just the Kiss of Hops” series, and apparently published around 1960. It looks to me like those luscious red lips on the raven-haired beauty are about to kiss the hops, rather than being kissed by them, as the tagline suggests.
Tuesday’s ad is for Carling Black Label and was originally published September 25, 1957. While quite effective in getting across its message, it’s an odd message nonetheless. Carling is trying to convince its customers that its beer is so light it’s like a feather. Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t want to drink a feather, do you? Visually, though — especially before the digital age — having the beer bottle resemble a feather is quite well done. Now that’s a light beer!
Monday’s ad is for Buffalo Brewing, a Sacramento, California brewery that opened in 1890, in honor of the first day of Sacramento Beer Week. Though I can’t be sure, my guess is it’s from around the turn of the last century, when vague art and beautiful, often naked or scantily clad, women were all the rage — not like in the more enlightened future of today.
Today work of art is a return to the old masters, a place we haven’t been for some time now. The artist is Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn better known simply as Rembrandt, one of history’s most famous artists. Today’s painting is officially known as “Portrait of the Artist with his Wife Saskia” though more commonly as “The Prodigal Son” or “The Prodigal Son in the Tavern.” It was painted in 1635 and currently resides in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister (Old Masters Picture Gallery) in Dresden, Germany. I was fortunate enough to see the original when I was there visiting the Radeberger brewery a few years ago.
In the painting, Rembrandt painted himself hoisting a flute of beer high in the air, with his wife, Saskia, seated on his lap. Set in a tavern, she is dressed as a courtesan while Rembrandt is dressed richly, indulging in his whim and squandering his resources. The painting depicts the Biblical scene from Luke, as explained on Olga’s Gallery:
Prodigal Son (Luke 15:11-32). A man divided his estate between his two sons. The younger went off, squandered his portion in riotous living and was finally, in poverty, reduced to tending a farmer’s pigs. He returned home penitently and was joyfully received by his father who said “My boy, you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.” (Luke 15:31). This parable, which teaches the virtues of repentance and forgiveness, is most often represented in art.
You can read more about Rembrandt’s life in the biography at the Rembrandt Painting website, Encyclopedia Britannica, and the Web Museum. You can also see more of his work at Complete Catalogue of Rembrandt van Rijn’s Paintings and A Web Catalogue of Rembrandt Paintings.
The sixth Guinness poster by John Gilroy is another of the many ads that are in a zoo. In this one, one of the most famous, an ostrich has swallowed a pint glass whole and it’s visible in his long neck. The tagline is perhaps one of the most common, “My Goodness, My Guinness.”
Virtually the same ad has also appeared in a slightly different aspect ratio.
Friday’s ad is Italian but doesn’t appear to be for a specific beer, but rather seems to be more of a PSA for beer generally. “In tutto il mondo” translates as “worldwide” so the poster, which shows a glass of beer where a world globe might be, reads as “Worldwide Beer.” The poster was created by E. Arvati, but I don’t have any information on him or her beyond that. But as I have an obsession with globes, too, I’ve always liked this particular image.
Thursday’s ad is for Tuborg Beer and was published in 1960. It features a beautiful-looking nearly empty gold-rimmed pilsner glass with lace on the insides. The text reads “A-H-H-H! HEARD THE WORLD OVER … AFTER A GLASS OF TUBORG!” Tuborg used to be a stronger brand in the American market when I was a kid, and was part of United Breweries in Denmark before being acquired by brewing giant Carlsberg in 1970, ten years after this ad ran.
Wednesday’s ad is for O’Keefe’s and was done around 1900, years before Miller put on a woman in the moon. O’Keefe’s was a Canadian brewery that in 1916 was purchased by Carling, and later merged with Canadian Breweries in 1930. In 1969, it became Carling O’Keefe again but merged with Molson in 1989. The ad is typical of the turn of the century, when ads were often low-key with grand illustrations showing idealized beauty. “Pilsener Lager” I understand, but “Special Extra Mild Ale” is a bit of a head-scratcher. Extra Mild makes about as much sense as Imperial Mild, and now we’ve seen both.
It’s not just any Tuesday, but Fat Tuesday or Shrove Tuesday — Mardi Gras — so today’s ad is for a New Orleans beer, Jax. It’s a celebrity ad, with actress Dorothy Dandridge hawking Jax Beer. Dandridge was the first African-American woman nominated for an Academy Award and Halle Berry played her in the award winning HBO biopic Introducing Dorothy Dandridge. Using the tagline “Get the Light Idea!” That’s followed by “Drink Mellow Jax Beer.” You rarely see mellow used as a positive attribute these days, which is a shame, I think. I’m not sure when this ad is from, though Dandridge passed away in 1965, so it’s most likely it was before then. It was brewed by Jax Brewing Co. until 1956, when the New Orleans’ Jackson Brewing Co. bought the brand and brewed it there (the old brewery is now a shopping mall) until 1974, when Pearl Brewery bought them out. Since 1985, Pabst has owned the brand, but as far as I now, is not brewing it anywhere. Happy Mardi Gras.
Monday’s ad originally was published September 15, 1958 and is for Miller High Life, “The Champagne of Bottled Beer.” It’s a beautiful illustration of a man playing chess with only the beer, bottle and Miller logo in color. The art has an MC Escher quality to it, and though it’s signed, even at the original size I can’t make out who it was. The detail in the illustration is wonderful, especially the chess pieces.
