Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1905. At least it’s not just yachting. The full tagline is “The Pleasure of Yachting, Golfing, Fishing, Camping Is Incomplete Without Budweiser.” But since this particular ad’s illustration is aboard a yacht, I have to wonder if there are companion ads on a golf course or campsite. Either way, the ad is certainly going for the outdoorsy demographic circa early 20th century.
Thursday’s ad is for Pabst, from 1897. In honor of the Chinese New Year, and more specifically because it’s the year of the goat, this ad is for the Bock Beer made by the Pabst Zythepsary. Zythepsary, by the way, is an archaic word for brewery. Happy New Year.
Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1910. After fighting a muskie fish you’re “mad and sweaty” you’ll want a beer. But I love their description of Budweiser. “It’s alive with the strength of the finest barley grown in the New World and the tonic properties of the finest hops grown in the Old World.” The “tonic properties” of hops?
Tuesday’s ad is also for Budweiser, from 1962. It’s part of Anheuser-Busch’s “where there’s life” series and features Helen Williams, the first African-American model to “break into the mainstream.” Born in New Jersey, she’d been wildly popular in France in the 1950s but — surprise, surprise — she faced rampant discrimination in her native country from modeling agency until her cause was taken up by several reporters who took her side and wrote about her plight, prompting her to get offers of modeling work from a variety of clients, including Budweiser. In the ad, Williams is looking up from the crossword puzzle she’s working on to watch unseen hands pouring a can of Budweiser into a glass for her. I know a beer always helps me with crossword puzzles.
Monday’s ad is for Budweiser, from sometime in the late 1940s or early Fifties, is my guess. A couple looks over a tiny house model for what looks like it will be an actual tiny house when built full size. I know it’s just a scale model, but it looks like a one-room studio home with a bathroom, or closet. And how about his fashion sense, that green jacket with the ridiculously large yellow ascot; and striped grey pants?. Is he going to a Packers game or just a player? Maybe it’s a bachelor pad and that’s his sister or girlfriend helping him with the design?
Sunday’s ad is for Rheingold Beer, from 1960. “After The Show, Wherever I Go, I Meet This Old Friend Of Mine — Rheingold Extra Dry, says the great authority on scat, Cab Calloway.” I’m not sure who the other guy looking in the mirror is, although he is sharing a beer with Cab Calloway, so he’s probably a friend or colleague. I guess the show went well?
Saturday’s ad is for Ballantine, from 1948. A simple Valentine’s Day ad with a great play on words with the title: “To My Ballantine” and showing a woman cutting out a red heart and leaving the three-ring Ballantine logo as the scraps. Those have got to be the longest scissors I’ve ever seen. They look more like garden shears. But nice and simple, with a great illustration in the center. Happy Valentine’s Day.
Friday’s ad is for Heineken, from 1977. In the year I graduated from high school, Heineken was considered “the good stuff” by my step-father’s friends and relatives, which in retrospect is rather sad and indicative of the state of beer at that time. This is also at a time when Holland seemed mysterious, and people really didn’t know much about the European nation. So using such cliched images in their ads like tulips and windmills probably made sense, but looks really dated now. Even the beer glass has a windmill on it.
Thursday’s ad is for Michelob, from 1967. Apparently, in the late Sixties people still had trouble pronouncing Michelob. It reminds me of the packaging on Lagunitas, which includes “Say ‘lah-goo-knee-tuss'” on their carriers because when the brewery first opened, founder Tony Magee worried that most people wouldn’t know how to pronounce the name of the small west Marin town. So okay, it’s “Mick-A-Lobe,” “Now that’s an order.” Also, “In beer, going first class is Michelob. Period.” Sadly, that is how the brand was positioned. It even seemed to work for a while.
Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1950. Here’s a great rule of thumb for living. “Some sort of recreation belongs in every one of your busy days.” If it’s croquet and drinking beer, I’m in. Especially if I get to dress up in the backyard. But I love croquet, used to play it at my grandmother’s place all the time growing up. Curiously, though, she never offered me a beer. I do like that their croquet set appears to have a place on it where you set down your beer. Ours didn’t have that.
