Sunday’s ad is for Falstaff, from 1970. Featuring soul singer James Brown, whose birthday is today. He did an ad for Falstaff in which he’s shown belting out a song in a dozen sequential photos on a black background. Below there’s a simple photos of a glass of Falstaff beer with a can next to it and the interesting tagline “This family brews beer better.”
Saturday’s ad is for Lowenbrau, from 1984. It’s a fairly simple ad showing two bottles of Lowenbrau, one of which was poured into a glass, at a time when it was sill considered a “premium” import, which seems laughable by today’s standards.
Friday’s ad is for Whitbread, from 1952. The illustration features an illustration of a man pouring a pale ale, and he’s wearing a very odd expression on his face, his smile seemed forced (or just plain creepy). But what strikes me as strange is a statement in the copy that “they do all their own bottling.” Was that something uncommon enough in the 1950s that they’d use it as a selling point?
Thursday’s ad is for the English brewer’s “Beer is Best” campaign, from 1938. The campaign began in 1933, and ran for 30 years. This one simply shows a man’s arm (wearing a suit) holding a mug of beer. The ad copy wants people to keep drinking English beer, offering several reasons why you should. “Drink beer because you like it” and “Drink beer because it’s good for you.” But whatever you do, “Stick to beer.”
Wednesday’s ad is for White Seal Beer, from 1904. White Seal Beer was brewed by the National Brewery Co., a.k.a. Griesedieck Bros., of St. Louis, Missouri. It’s a “splendid adjuvant.”
Tuesday’s ad is for Falstaff, from 1963. Part of a series of ads from the early 1960s (see, for example Beer In Ads #225: Falstaff, This Is The One) in which they feature the slogan “For your Light-hearted moments … This Is The One.” One note, you may think that’s a bottle of Falstaff he’s holding, but it’s referred to as a “handy Glass Can.”
Monday’s ad is for Whitbread, from 1952. So what is the “Best of the Light Ales?” According to this bartender, it’s Whitbread Pale Ale, which apparently “pours clean and clear to the last drop.”
Sunday’s ad is for United Brewers Industrial Foundation, from the late 1940s. I’m not exactly sure what year, but it’s the year after whatever year the brewing industry paid $400,000,000 in taxes. Two men are looking for a place to grab a beer, and decide the bar must meet four criteria:
I know I always wonder if bar owners are following the law before I’ll even consider visiting them. Don’t you? The other oddity is that the UBIF also announced a “clean-up or close-up” program to improve or get rid of bar bars in order to raise the standard of all of them. The idea, undoubtedly, was to change the pre-prohibition perception of bars, especially when it was still fresh in the minds of most Americans. Still, I know I’ll go to a place meeting those conditions, though I suppose the last one os the most important to me.
Saturday’s ad is for Heineken, from 1966. This is sort of a nostalgic ad using imagery from wartime and specifically World War 2, which seems odd to me.
Friday’s ad is for Asahi, from sometime over the last decade or so. It’s hard to say since Japanese anime or manga art is often so timeless. Animation in the form of anime and manga is incredibly popular in Japan, and became increasingly so in the U.S. from the 1980s on. Beyond the cheesecake factor, it’s a simple, and familiar beer advertising image, of a woman on the beach in a bikini. I’m sure that music means something, but I don’t recognize the tune. The woman also may be a familiar character from a popular manga book but I don’t recognize her either.
