Friday’s ad is for Guinness, from 1946. The ad is illustrated by an H.M. Bateman and shows a foursome all searching for their golf ball on a beach of white stones, making finding their ball a bit look looking for a needle in a haystack. They really don’t look so much tired as the do angry, not that I blame them. The next foursome behind them on the green is most likely tired of waiting for them, too. I don’t know if a Guinness would help, but it probably couldn’t hurt.
Thursday’s ad is for the American Can Company, from 1938. It’s for their “keglined” cans and includes a curiously feminine beer can (I don’t think I realized that cans could be male or female). But the text is pure gold. “I am a beer can. I have no past — no future. I belong to YOU. I was brand new when i was filled. I’ll never be used again. I am clean. I am safe. I am easy to carry, easy to stack. I protect the delicious flavor of beer and ale because I keep out harmful light.” Genius.
Wednesday’s ad is for Tooheys, from 1932. The Australian ad starts with awesome tagline. “Beer is Good … because everything in it is good.” There’s a number of great bon mots in the text. “Beer is as pure as Nature and hygienic brewing can make it,” is a good one. But I love this ending, too. “Serve beer in your home … at any time. Enjoy it regularly … and benefit from its goodness.” Well, okay.
Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1961. I love her smile, the expression on her face — it’s so Mary Tyler Moore, especially with the hip material of the dress (or is that a blouse?) she’s wearing. I also love how she’s holding that six-pack, so we know just how light it is, able to be picked up with little effort at the grocery store. Which is probably why toward the end of the ad copy, there’s this suggestion. “Better get a couple.”
Monday’s ad is for The Robert Smith Ale Brewing Co., from sometime after 1896 but before Prohibition. From what I can tell, while the brewery was founded in 1774, it wasn’t known as The Robert Smith Ale Brewing Co. until 1896, when it acquired by C. Schmidt & Sons and operated as one of their divisions (although another source claims Schmidt’s took over the Robert Smith brewery in 1881). The casks stacked to the left in the ad each have a different beer printed in them, suggesting this was the line of beers offered by the brewery at the time of the ad. The beer’s listed are Tiger Head I.P.A., India Pale, Burton, English Pale, XXX, Old Musty, Brown Stout and Imperial Burton. Only Tiger Head I.P.A. and the Brown Stout also have “Bottling” printed in smaller letters at the bottom of the head of the cask, so I suspect those were the two beers they may have offered in bottles.
Sunday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1956. When you’re sitting in the dark watching nature documentaries, feasting on the carcass of a chicken (or possibly turkey) with some cheese between two slices of bread, you’ll definitely want a cold beer. So “Give Yourself A Break” and have some “late in the evening.” I hope Bambi makes it out the forest.
Saturday’s ad is for Reading Premium, from 1969. This is from my hometown brewery, which closed in 1976. But as regular readers will know, it was a “friendly” beer, having used the slogan “The Friendly Beer For Modern People” since the 1950s. It’s probably my favorite beer slogan of all-time. I guess by the late 1960s it was sounding old-fashioned, so they tried to make it sound a little more groovy by calling it the shorter “Friendmaker.” The ad is for a six-pack of pint bottles — “glass cans” — which is “a right beer, a day beer, a night beer … a drink it any time beer!”
Friday’s ad is for Blatz, from 1904. Even at a time when people seemed to speak with more poetry, it’s hard to understand how Blatz’s “Wiener Beer” didn’t catch on to become an iconic beer. But the ad copy is pretty hilarious. “The unprecedented popularity of Blatz Wiener is due to its pronounced individuality — that indescribable honest flavor that always means ‘Blatz’ — that delightful Wiener ‘smack’ that goes straight to the spot. Drink it for beer character — For health’s sake drink it.” Pure poetry.
Thursday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from who knows when. Not a clue when this was created, or how it was used — was it a poster, a more artistic ad or not created by Pabst at all? Not a clue, but it’s too cool to ignore despite known almost nothing about it.
Wednesday’s ad is for Anheuser-Busch’s Black & Tan, from 1899. I’m sure this seemed like a cute idea at the turn of two centuries ago, around 116 years from now, but to our current sensibilities, it certainly looks odd. Back in 1995, A-B reintroduced their Black & Tan as part of their “American Originals” series, but this ad is from its original release, when it was “prepared only by Anheuser-Busch Brew’g Ass’n.” The patriotic ad shows a pair of American flags for most of the background behind the label, with a military camp showing beneath the flags at the bottom of the ad. The army “volunteers” referred to appear to be nine naked babies whose skin is either tan or black. And I’m not sure why there’s a dog — a black and tan doberman? — barking at them at the bottom of the label. I’m sure naked colored babies with rifles made sense in 1899, but I can’t imagine the ad being green-lit today.
