Brookston Beer Bulletin

Jay R. Brooks on Beer

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Beer In Ads #320: Little Kings Mini Rocket Car

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Today in 1997, the Boston Beer Co. took possession of the Hudephol-Schoenling Brewery in Cincinnati, Ohio. One of their most well-known brands was Little Kings Cream Ale, so I found an ad for Little Kings from the early 1980s for Monday’s ad. It shows a scary-looking costumed Little King “introducing … The Little Kings Mini Rocket Car.” It was based on a real rocket car that the brewery sponsored, driven by Larry Nagel. Nagel has some nice reminiscing about the rocket car and even the brewery’s involvement in his Flickr gallery. Here’s his commentary for this ad:

Little Kings cream ale brewery sponsored my rocket car. Here is a picture of the promotional go kart, a mini replica of my rocket car they had built. Little Kings was a family owned brewery based in Cincinnati, OH and treated me like part of the family. Every year in Champaign, IL, a college town, they have Little Kings day. The bars open at 6am and people would belly up to the bar and have a bowl of cheerios with Little Kings instead of milk. I had the Pocket Rocket outside on display and when I went inside the bar, sitting there with all the kids eating his cereal drowned in beer, was Bill Schoenling, owner of Schoenling Brewing. I had a whole new respect for this man. Talk about staying in touch with your demographic.

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Guinness Ad #57: The Ideal Summer Resort

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Our 57th Guinness poster by John Gilroy shows four of the zoo animals — the seal, kangaroo, toucan and pelican — frolicking on a sunny beach. The seal has a pint of Guinness balancing on top of the beach ball he’s balancing on his nose and the ad’s slogan is “Guinness — the ideal summer resort.”

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The Rocketbeer Rocketeer

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I’m a huge fan of Dave Stevens and especially his story of The Rocketeer, which was a fabulous comic book before it was a 1991 film with Bill Campbell, Jennifer Connelly and Alan Arkin.

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What’s not to love about an adventure story with a jet pack at the heart of it? I was captivated by jet packs after I first saw one in the James Bond movie Thunderball. So what does another of my singular obsessions have to do with beer? Glad you asked. I stumbled upon this 1976 ad for Pabst Blue Ribbon earlier today and it features — yeah, you guessed it — a jet pack. Although they call it a “rocketbelt” in the ad, it’s a jet pack all the same. The original video was uploaded to YouTube by the very cool sounding Rocket Belt Society.

Beer In Ads #318: Miss Rheingold Bowls

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Thursday’s ad is from 1956 and is for Rheingold Beer. Miss Rheingold for that year was Millie Merritt and in this June ad she’s gone bowling, an activity far more popular in 1956 than today. I spent many happy hours bowling in my youth, though all of it without the benefit if beer, sad to say.

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Beer In Ads #317: Carling, People Try It … And They Like It

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Wednesday’s ad is for Carling Black Label, one of a series of ads with the slogan “People try it … and they like it.” Each ad I’ve seen seems to feature a different unique beer glass. The one in this ad had an etched stem, and tapers up from a wide base to even wider open mouth rim. That’s not a glass I see much these days. Does anybody know if it has a specific name?

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Beer In Ads #315: What Great Americans Favored Beer As A Beverage Of Moderation?

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Monday’s ad is from 1951 and ran in Newsweek. It was produced by the U.S. Brewers Foundation, one of a series of historical ads showing the positive side of beer in a post-Prohibition America, a world, like today, in which the neo-prohibitionists continued nipping at their heels despite Prohibition’s massive, unmitigated failure. The ad answers the question “What Great Americans Favored Beer As A Beverage Of Moderation?” with “Washington, Jefferson, Madison and Patrick Henry—to name just a few.” Since today is Presidents Day, and their list includes three early American presidents, it seemed a good way to celebrate by remembering there was a time when beer wasn’t under constant attack and our most popular politicians openly supported it. Happy Presidents Day.

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“For Good Living” Brown Derby Promotional Film

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If you say my last post, Beer In Ads #314: Brown Derby’s For Good Living, now you know why I chose a Brown Derby ad. I also came across this promotional film from the same year as the ad, 1937, which was called “For Good Living,” and sponsored at the time by Safeway Stores. It’s a silent promotional film, but after some cheesy introductions shows the brewery where Brown Derby is made. Really, there’s a lot of early brewery porn. Obviously the basic process of making and packaging beer hasn’t changed all that much in the 70+ years since this video was made, but the machinery sure has. At just under twenty minutes, it’s a pretty thorough virtual tour, and includes both bottles and cans being produced. After the tour, the final minutes show the planned “For Good Living” advertising campaign. It’s quite a time capsule. I think every brewer should watch it. I’d love to hear some of their thoughts on then vs. now.