Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #1554: Mr. & Mrs. Beer Glass

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Wednesday’s ad is a German beer poster by famed Swiss illustrator Herbert Leupin. This is maybe the seventh or eighth work by him that I’ve featured over the years. The text on the poster, “gibt kraft und nervenruhe,” is translated by Google as “gives strength and nerve rest.” I’m sure there’s a more idiomatic and elegant translation, but you get the idea. It may be a companion poster to Beer In Ads #1158: Spendet Freude Und Harmonie, which translates as “gives pleasure and harmony.” In that one, the male glass is smiling, whereas in today’s ad it’s more of a frown. I wonder if that’s a reflection of the beer in the glass?

gibt-kraft-und-nervenruhe

Beer In Ads #1553: Fifty Shades Of Brown

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Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1960. Good to know advertisers back then were as shameless as today. It’s fifty shades of brown, with an attractive brown-haired male model in a brown suit and tie, sitting in a tan chair while holding a beer and a brown puppy. I wonder who they were targeting with the ad?

Schlitz-1960-puppy

Beer In Ads #1552: Enjoy Life With Miller High Life

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Monday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1963. The ad is fairly simple, just a glass of beer and a half-emptied bottle of High Life next to it, with a plate of food behind it, and slightly out of focus. Is that lobster? It feels like the ad may have been cut off, like there should be more below the headline, but maybe not, it was done in the minimalist 1960s.

Miller-1963

Beer In Ads #1550: All This, Just To Drink A Guinness In Peace?

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Saturday’s ad is another one for Guinness, this one from 1986. The ad shows the United Nations building in New York, with the odd tagline “All This, Just To Drink A Guinness In Peace?” Apparently that’s because the Delegates’s Dining Room on the top floor serves Guinness, though I still don’t think it makes a great deal of sense.

Guinness-1986-UN

Beer In Ads #1549: Picnic Time At Stonehenge

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Friday’s ad is for Guinness, from 1957. The ad shows two young couples having a picnic within spitting distance of Stonehenge which I imagine was as impossible in 1957 as it is today. Maybe I’m wrong, but I can’t believe they’d let anyone get so close to such a national treasure. I love the wild abandon with which the one dude is eating a chicken leg. I know the other guy is sporting an ascot, but is the chicken man wearing one, too, or did he tuck his tie in his shirt? And the dresses that the women are wearing are pretty fly, too, particularly the grey skirt with the jugs. But a picnic by Stonehenge? It’s true. “Life is worth living after a Guinness.”

Guinness-1957-stonehenge

Beer In Ads #1546: Tecate’s Three Amigos

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Tuesday’s ad, for Cinco de Mayo, is for Tecate beer, from 1988. The cartoon art was created by Leslie Cabarga and used by Tecate in a series of ads that summer, and was even made into a poster. Showing two Tecates, a bottle and a can, though the can is clearly the leader, along with a bottle of Chihuahua (which I recall selling at BevMo for $2.99 per six-pack), making an entrance into a wild west saloon. Notice the can has a bottle of salt and a lime in his holsters. It’s a pretty cheesy ad, but this was also the same time 7-Up was advertising using a spot with arms and legs, and California raisins were similarly animated, so maybe it was popular.

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Beer In Ads #1545: The Only Beer Brewed Specially For The Can

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Monday’s ad is for Long Life, from 1963. The canned beer Long Life Beer was made by Ind Coope beginning in the 1950s, making it one of the early beers in cans in the UK. They launched a series of ads claiming that the recipe was formulated specifically for the can, and as a result “it never varies!” But it certainly looks good for out-of-focus fishing.

Ind-Coope-1963-long-life