Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #576: Portrait Of A Happy Husband, By A Smart Wife

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Monday’s ad is from a different time, 1940 to be exact. This Budweiser ad will have feminists tearing their hair out. The ad features a mock essay entitled Portrait of a Happy Husband, written by none other than A Smart Wife. The happy husband being portrayed is still in his suit (minus the jacket) but is wearing slippers, smoking his pipe while reading the paper, and with a beer on the table next to him for when he becomes parched. Some of her revelations are that his favorite appliance is the “icebox,” that he “prowls” for snacks and is happiest, not with her, but with friends, and won’t you please “drop by this evening” and save me from this hellish nightmare. I’ll have the Budweiser.

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Guinness Ad #113: The Guinness Turkey

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Our 113th Guinness ad has a different look to it. Showing a stylized turkey (or as one commenter suggests, possibly a goose) ready for eating, but curiously still alive, the tagline explains things. “My Goodness where’s the Guinness?” I guess he wants a drink before being eaten? I don’t think I’d be smiling.

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Beer In Ads #572: A Wedding Toast

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Tuesday’s ad is another one for Miller High Life, this time showing a wedding couple in what looks like to me eerie tropical moonlight. Apparently it’s Waikiki, Hawai. The happy pair is being toasted with Miller High Life. It must have been a quickie wedding, there’s only four guests (or witnesses) at the reception. The server on the left looks like she’s wearing a “Girl in the Moon” outfit.

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Beer In Ads #569: Two Big Reasons Why

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Thursday’s ad is for Falls City beer, a Louisville, Kentucky brand that was founded in 1905 that lasted until 1978. This is the second somewhat surreal ad for this brewery, the first was Falls City Gives You More. Like that first one, they seem to favor ads that rhyme, too. The ad copy is “Two Big Reasons Why Fall City is the Beer to Buy.” And the two reasons? They’re class, as well. “* Pasteurized * Bitter-free.” The big face in the foreground looks out of perspective somehow; it looks too big, too in your face.

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Beer In Ads #568: Ballantine Ale Begins Where Other Brews Leave Off …

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Wednesday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale from, I’m guessing, the later 40s or early 50s. Showing a couple dressed up in their finest haute couture, the woman in a stunning blue cocktail dress and the gentleman in a tuxedo with tails. They’re toasting something pretty important by the looks of it, the confetti at their feet suggesting possibly New Year’s Eve. But it’s not champagne in their glasses, but Ballantine Ale. Because, according to the tagline; “Ballantine Ale begins where other brews leave off … in flavor … in satisfaction!” I also love the throwaway line toward the bottom. “The LIGHT ale that’s strong on flavor.”

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