A few weeks ago Lagunitas Brewing, my local down the street, announced a contest to win a a party in your home, Couch Trippin’ party to your home. The Couch Trippin’ Contest ended on the last day of August, and they’ve just announced the winner in a new Lagunitas video showing some of the best entries and ending with the winner’s submission.
Congratulations to Mel Gryllz (@Gryllzlee) for emerging victorious with this wonderful shot:
Saturday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, from 1944. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, but after World War II began. This one is part of an award-winning series of ads they did during the war to help boost morale on the home front, under the umbrella tagline “Morale is a Lot of Little Things.” This was from a group of the morale ads that took the point of view of soldiers and sailors writing home about what they were missing from home. In this one, a sailor “Sure could go for one of Mom’s bean suppers.”
Here’s a cool interactive map created by Ghost in the Data. Using data from the World Health Organization, the map shows “How much — and which — alcohol is drunk in the world during a week?” As the instructions explain: “Move over countries to learn it, or use the buttons to show the top wine, beer and spirits drinkers or each country’s favorite drink.” The first three maps show each alcohol type with darkest countries drinking more and lighter one drinking less that of that particular type. Check it out at Wine, Beer or Spirits?
Beer
Wine
Spirits
This map, called “Favorite,” shows each country by which of the alcohol types is the most popular there, and its intensity shows how popular it is relative to the other types.
Favorites by Type
If you move your mouse over each nation, you can see the breakdown for the alcohol types. I seem to recall that the WHO data also has an “other” category for native drinks that aren’t one of the big three so I’m not sure how they addressed that, whether including them as the one they most closely resembled or if they simply ignored them.
The profile for the United States
Friday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, also from 1942. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, but after World War II began. This one is part of an award-winning series of ads they did during the war to help boost morale on the home front, under the umbrella tagline “Morale is a Lot of Little Things.” In this ad, a man coming home from work gets an extra special hug from his wife, reminding him that it’s the little thing in life that we so easily take for granted but are very important, and are indeed the things we were fighting for, ending with this final bit of text. “A cool refreshing glass of beer — a moment of relaxation … in trying times like these they too help keep morale up.”
Thursday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, from 1942. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, but after World War II began. This one shows a threesome sitting around a roaring fire, beers in hand, warming up after a long day’s skiing. Luckily, the mellowness of beer and ale will temper winter’s bite. Yay beer.
Wednesday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, also from 1941. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, but after World War II began. However, this ad ran in February, meaning it was after the war in Europe began, but before America entered the war. This one shows a doctor returning from work at one o’clock in the morning, having just delivered twins. Sitting down to take off his shoes, before he’s even taken off his hat or coat, he calls to the other room, asking “where’s that beer?” It’s good to have priorities.
Tuesday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, from 1941. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, but after World War II began. However, this ad ran in Collier’s in November, meaning it was shortly before the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, so it was just before America entered the war. As a result, this one is a bowling themed ad, “Right down their alley … a glass of mellow beer or ale!” War ads would follow next year, but for now things were still “mellow”.
Monday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, another one from 1939. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. This one is second ad talking about how “What Beer contributes to the re-building of America would fill a great volume.” For example, “the entire cost of the C.C.C. (Civilian Conservation Corps) could be paid for by the taxes of the brewing industry!”
Sunday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, another one from 1940. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. This one focuses on the fact that “Nature Makes Beer,” but it’s hard not to love this. “A wholesome beverage, it deserves to be sold only in wholesome surroundings.”
Saturday’s ad is another one from the United Brewers Industrial Foundation, this one from 1940. This was well before the “Beer Belongs” series, and just before World War II. Ah, “The Moderation Hour,” where “Good Beer and Ale in wholesome, modern taverns, offer Americans pleasant inexpensive relaxation!” In all of the 1939 ads I’ve been running, they’ve been saying annual taxes brewers pay is $400 million but now the results are in for 1939, and the new number is $411,596,780, for both state and federal.
