Thursday’s ad is for Carling’s Black Label, from 1956. Using their iconic Mabel character in a fairly simple ad, she’s holding up a card with the beer logo on it. That’s pretty much it, but in the context of the other ads being run at that time, it still works. I’m thirsty.
Wednesday’s ad is for Brading’s Ale, from 1956. Brading’s was a Canadian brand that in 1930 merged with two other breweries to become part of Canadian Breweries Limited. The creepy man with the pipe looks like Laura Palmer’s father from Twin Peaks, played by Ray Wise. The tagline “At the flip of a cap, friendly pleasure,” seems somewhat odd, and I’m not quite sure what they were getting at. The unseen person was obviously flipping the cap like you would a coin, but what did the winner get? The beer? Did they have to pay the tab? Aren’t they in a fishing lodge, cabin or somewhere private, not a bar? “Mighty refreshing,” indeed. But the funniest of all is that last sentence. “Try a case!” While most marketers are happy if you try just one of their product, Brading’s is starting out by suggesting a case. After all, you can’t really be sure with just one bottle, or even ten. To really give it a fair chance, you need at least twenty-four bottles.
Tuesday’s ad is another one for Pabst, this one from 1939. The ads shows six fancy settings where the rich and famous enjoy their beer. This also looks as if the individual photos were used in individual ads at one time, and this one just used them all together. I love the tagline that used a couple of times here: “For Keener Refreshment ….” That’s certainly what I want in my beer, for it to be more keen than the other beer.
Monday’s ad is for Pabst, from between 1900 and 1910. It looks like it’s probably two ads, or more likely two advertising postcards, though they definitely seem related and work as a pair. On the right, a woman is presumably ordering beer, and on the left a young man — sporting a dandy pink tie and a shirt with puffy sleeves — is taking her order. The boxes behind him suggest six different Pabst products: Hofbrau, Export Beer, Select, Bavarian, Bohemian and The Best Tonic.
Sunday’s ad is for Narragansett Lager Tap, from 1917. It’s a fairly tame and generic, ad but I love the way they describe the beer in the last line. “Discriminating folks” are the ones who “enjoy the malt beverages brewed from A1 barley malt, Saazer Land Hops and pure water.”
Saturday’s ad is for Rheingold Beer, from 1937. This was an unusual ad for independence day, using a snowman in July to talk about “the glorious Fourth.” And the snowman is lighting a firecracker, it must have really stood out in a magazine or newspaper published in the summer. And another oddity: there’s a circle containing the pjrase “beer is best,” which was a phrase being used at the time in Great Britain by a brewers trade group so it’s interesting to see it in an American ad during the same time period.
Friday’s ad is another baseball-themed one for Ballantine Premium, from 1968. This one is “Go Phillies!” and shows the three broadcasters for the Philadelphia games. The only one I recognize is Ashburn, who also used to play for the Phils (but then I was an Orioles fan as a rebellious kid). This ad also features another generic illustration of baseball action. Just what the hell is that symbol on the uniform of the player sliding into home?
Thursday’s ad is for Ballantine Beer, from the 1950s. Using the tagline “… the crisp refresher,” the illustration is of a generic blue and red baseball team, and the copy states that Ballantine is presenting the “Yankees on TV and Radio.” Those are clearly not Yankees uniforms so I bet the ad was used in multiple markets and Ballantine sponsored several different teams, as well.
Wednesday’s ad is from the Brewer’s Society’s “Beer is Best” campaign, from 1938. It’s the July image from “A Calendar Of British Beer” for the year 1938. Showing a pair of Shire horses hooked up to a wagon of wooden beer kegs, the idea was that such a scene wasn’t too far removed from “the way [beer] has always been brewed.”
Tuesday’s ad is for Old Milwaukee, from 1981. This was an advertising poster that Old Milwaukee put out in the early eighties. I’m not sure if the seductive model is somebody I’m supposed to know, or was famous in that time. Either way, I think it could definitely get better than that. For starters, better beer would be nice.
