Saturday’s ad is for Heineken, from 2006. I’m not sure I quite understand it. Heineken is “guaranteed to whisk you away to hotter climes.” So how does that make it the “devil’s secret,” have anything to do with fire or make the tagline “get spoiled” make any sense. But it is very colorful, with brights golds and reds. And why would you want to associate the color of beer with fire at at any rate?
Friday’s ad is for Lone Star Beer, from 1953. It’s a pretty minimal ad, but has some nice touches: the steam whistle, the glass of beer and the fun typography.
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1970. It’s a bright garish ad — perfect for the 1970s — mostly reds. There are red walls, a red floor and a bit of white and just a little blue, enough to make it red, white and blue, as in the Budweiser logo. The piano is a Bud logo’d piano and the tagline is “Why do more beer drinkers sing the praises of Budweiser than any other brand?” That’s followed by a nice double entendre: “You’ll know why after a bar or two.” So there are bars where people drink and bars that people sing. I guess this is both, but where are the eight people who left their half-full mugs of beer (and one who hasn’t even touched his) on top? I think they were there for the singing, had one taste of the beer, and fled.
Wednesday’s ad is for Grutli, from who knows when, perhaps the 1950s or 60s? The illustration was done by French artist Herve Moran, but I don’t know if Grutli is from there, or somewhere else? I do love how the man really loves his beer, going so far as to imagine a woman’s face is the foam. I love a good beer, but even for me that may be going a bit too far.
Tuesday’s ad is for Dow’s Kingsbeer, from 1955. Apparently they really know what their customers want, because it’s “Rice Brewed to the Canadian Taste.” Yum. That’s a hell of a slogan.
Monday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1954. That’s some seriously greasy looking fried chicken, and the fries don’t look much better. Still, it makes me hungry to look at it. And we’ve got another one of those magic bottles, the kind that fills the entire glass to overflowing, but is still only half empty.
Sunday’s ad is for Carling Black Label, from 1951. It looks like it was probably the back cover of a program for a football game, though it’s fairly low key, soft sell, just showing a bear playing football. The only hint that it’s a beer ad is the bear’s scarf, flapping in the wind as he rushes for a touchdown.
Saturday’s ad is for Falstaff, from 1967. It looks like they’re camping next to a river somewhere in the southwest, possibly along the Colorado by the Grand Canyon? I like their three-word description of the beer. “Crisp. Clean. Robust.”
Friday’s ad is for Oland’s Schooner Lager Beer, from 1967. The Oland Brewery is from Nova Scotia, Canada, though today it’s owned by Labatt Brewing, and ultimately ABI. The tagline, “putting a Schooner in a bottle is skilled work,” plays nicely on the beer’s name and follows through with the punchline at the bottom, “taking it out is pure pleasure.”
Thursday’s ad is for Genesee Beer, from 1970. The snowy stream reminds me more of a Coors ad, and how about the handle on the glass mug, that’s an odd looking one. And that foam head looks staged and fake, but then quite a lot of ads around this time and before had foam like this, they must have all used the same photo stagers.