Thursday’s ad is for Falstaff, from 1956. Now matter how you feel about the issue of guns and gun control, it doesn’t seem to me that it’s a great idea to mix a romantic evening by the fireplace with a couple of beers and a shotgun. Don’t worry honey, it will be fun. I’ll clean my gun and we’ll drink a few Falstaffs. What could go wrong? But look how happy they look.
Wednesday’s ad is for Carling’s Black Label, from 1955. By “those moments,” an example might be it starting to rain just as you finished washing your car. That would drive anyone to drink, I suppose. But not just any beer, according to the ad copy, will do. You need the “most satisfying beer of all,” a.k.a. “the beer with the heart of gold.”
Tuesday’s ad is for Moosehead, from 1955. With a moose up a tree, perched above them, two hunters are stumped as to what happened to the animal they were tracking. “You’d Almost Think It Flew Away ….” The footprints just stopped. These are apparently not the smartest hunters in the Maritimes. One too many Mooseheads, I suspect.
Monday’s ad is unusual insofar as unlike almost every other ad, this one is not for a beer. The 1985 ad is actually for a text-based video game from Infocom based on Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. The novel The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was published today, October 12, in 1979, a year after the original radio show aired on BBC Radio.
The double truck ad decided to feature one of the scenes in the beginning of the book, when Ford Prefect takes his human friend Arthur Dent to a local pub shortly before Earth is scheduled to be demolished to make way for a bypass. “Six pints of bitter,’ said Ford Prefect…. ‘And quickly please, the world’s about to end.’”
Sunday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1934. It’s just after prohibition ended and Schlitz is definitely going classy. Apparently Schlitz is seen in “the smartest places” and is “served in well-ordered homes.” Not to mention what a big deal out of their brown bottles. But by far, my favorite line in the ad copy makes no sense whatsoever. “Flavor in Schlitz beer is like style in a Worth frock.”
Saturday’s ad is for Duraglas, from 1940. It’s Duraglas, a brand of glass bottles owned by the Owens-Illinois Glass Company, that’s “Changing Beer Bottle Behavior.” If you peek behind the action of the woman handing a green bottle to one of the two tuxedoed gentlemen into the refrigerator, you can see a green, brown and clear glass bottles sitting on the shelf inside. But in the foreground, it’s a brown bottle of beer being poured into the glass next to the salad. If you look closely at the bluish wallpaper around the ad, there are bottles of beer with brands on them, like Carnegie Pilsener Beer, Kato Pilsner Beer, Felsenbrau, Old Ox Head Ale, Mule Head Stock Ale, Topaz, Stegmeier Porter, Monarch Beer, Ruppert Ale, Hillcrest Lager Beer, Lucky Lager, Cincinnati Burger Brau, Top Hat Beer, Lucky Ale, Edelbrau Porter, and that’s just some from the left side. They all appear to be different, which is pretty amazing. I recognize enough of the brands to assume they must all be real brands from the time period.
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1934. The idea is eight months after prohibition ended, orders were coming in once more for Budweiser from all over the world. The half-dozen stereotypes sitting on the globe in national garb, each raising their beers with a traditional toast, represent six nations or cultures. Curiously, the American toast is “Here’s How.” That’s not a toast I’ve ever heard here, or anywhere for that matter.
Thursday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1935. The Great Chicago Fire took place on October 8, 1871, or today 144 years ago. In this Schlitz ad from two years after prohibition ended, it shows an illustration of the “Great Chicago Fire,” stating that even before that event in 1871, “Schlitz was making Milwaukee famous.”
Wednesday’s ad is for Labatt’s Pilsener, from 1955. First of all, there’s a funny-looking moose sitting on a stump wearing boots and a flannel shirt. Beyond “The Swing Is Definitely To Labatt’s,” there are some gems in the copy for this ad. “When thirst has you by the horns, just call for a tall, cool glass of sparkling Labatt’s PILSENER,” and “the wonderful dryness of Pilsener makes any thirst vaMOOSE fast!” There’s also a pretty interesting claim toward the bottom of the ad. “The only beer in the world endorsed by brewmasters of seven other breweries.” I wonder which ones?
Tuesday’s ad is for O’Keefe, from 1958. “The Choice Is Yours!” reminds of the Blues Brothers movie, when the band plays at an old honky tonk, and the owner tells them what kind of music they feature. “We have both kinds of music: country and western.” In this case the choice is between “O’Keefe Old Stock Ale” and “O’Keefe Ale.” This first is “hearty and full-bodied” while the second is “smooth and light.” So they have both kinds.
