Saturday’s holiday ad for New Year’s is a Schaefer ad from 1941, from their 100th anniversary. The black and white ad is fairly classy with a simple glass in hand raising a toast “To the New Year and Our 100th Anniversary.” Hoppy New Year everybody.
Beer In Ads #278: Season’s Greetings From The Moon
Friday’s holiday ad for New Year’s Eve is a Miller High Life ad from 1948 features their iconic “Girl in the Moon” sitting on a crescent moon toasting the world with a beer. It seems a fitting way to finish 2010 and welcome the promise of a new year. Hoppy New Year everybody.
Beer In Ads #277: Antique Holiday Beer Card
Thursday’s holiday ad is something of a mystery. It’s not for a particular brand, at least as far as I can tell. It looks like it’s probably from the 19th century, or possibly the very early part of the twentieth. While not overtly “Christmasy,” is does seem to be about the holiday season, with the green and red colors and the wreath. But that’s all speculation, I’m not even sure exactly what it is, though a postcard or card seems likely. Might the fact that the circle of the wreath is blank suggest it was a sample? Whatever its purpose, it’s a cool piece of breweriana.
Beer In Ads #276: Miss Rheingold & The Snowman
Wednesday’s winter ad features Miss Rheingold for 1955, Nancy Woodruff, putting the final touch — a top hat — on a snowman holding a bottle and a can Rheingold beer. The slogan, “Now these two twins are dressed alike!,” presumably must refer to a change in their can packaging, which I suspect didn’t mirror the bottle label quite so much before then. But I must confess I think Woodruff has a great smile.
Binge Drinking Excuses From The OLCC
Just in time for New Year’s Eve — a.k.a. Amateur Drinking Night — the OLCC has released yet another PSA, this one featuring the message “Binge Drinking Doesn’t Start With A Drink. It Starts With An Excuse.” The video lists four presumably common excuses for drinking too much, though frankly I’ve never heard another living soul say them, not even a variation of them. I’m not saying the excuses aren’t something to avoid — they are — but they don’t seem all that reasonable to me. Perhaps I don’t hang around with enough binge drinkers, despite theoretically being one myself (at least at every five-course or more beer dinner I attend, since the federal definition is absurdly five drinks in a row). As a result, like their other PSAs, it appears well-meaning but unintentionally a little funny. I’m of the opinion that people who want to binge drink don’t need any made-up excuse. They do so for their own reasons, no excuse necessary.
And frankly, this needs to be said. If someone wants to drink a little too much on occasion — such as a holiday celebration — I say they should be able to, provided they don’t drive or otherwise put others at risk. As the saying goes, “Everything in moderation, including moderation.”
Beer In Ads #275: Molson Makes It Golden
Tuesday’s holiday ad is for Molson from 1985. I chose a Molson ad because today would have been founder John Molson’s 247th birthday. The playful ad shows two horse-drawn sleighs, one of which, driven by a man, is hauling cases of beer and the other, presumably driven by a woman, remarking that “You can land on my roof anytime.”
Beer In Ads #274: Budweiser, Something More Than Beer …
Monday’s holiday ad is for Budweiser from 1950 and features a Santa-like chef with a bounteous feast of meats and seafood, along with fruits and cheese. The slogan for that ad is “Something more than beer … A tradition in hospitality.” It originally ran in Life magazine’s Christmas issue for 1950.
The Santa-like chef image had been used before, in this 1947 ad about “Help Yourself to Good Taste.”
Beer In Art #109: Peter Black’s Beer Mugs
This week’s work of art is an original acrylic painting done in 2009. The painting is 50 cm x 70 cm and can be yours, from Fine Art America, for only $370. Sadly, beyond the Fine Art America page, there’s little information about the artwork or the artist himself.
You can see a few more of Black’s paintings at his Fine Art America profile page.
Sapporo’s Legendary Biru
My friend and colleague, Tom Dalldorf, sent me the link to this cool video by Sapporo beer for the Canadian market. Entitled Legendary Biru, it’s almost Rube Goldberg-esque. The original music is pretty addictive, too, but it’s the inventive way in which they re-imagine the brewing process that I find interesting. You can also see more about it at Sapporo’s Canadian website. I think there may be a contest of some kind, too, but I didn’t look closely at that aspect of it.
Guinness Ad #48: Guinness Time
Our 48th Guinness poster by John Gilroy features Santa Claus decorating the Christmas tree with Guinness bottles, with a little help from all of his zoo animals. Now that’s “Guinness Time” … er Christmas Time.
