Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser from 1982, showing sports equipment and announcing Anheuser-Busch as a “proud sponsor of the 1984 Olympic team.” It’s one of the few ads showing beer in a paper cup, which I guess continues the sporting theme.
Beer In Ads #290: Coors, His Truth Is Marching On
Monday’s ad is for Coors from around 1990, featuring the painting by artist Ellis Wilson entitled Funeral Procession. It was painted in the 1950s and currently hangs in the Aaron Douglas Collection in the Amistad Research Center at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana.
The painting became well-known in 1985 “thanks to its appearance in the plot of an episode of The Cosby Show in 1985, during the second season of the long-running series. In the program, Mrs. Huxtable acquires the painting—which is ostensibly by her “great-uncle Ellis”—at auction, paying $11,500. At the end of the episode, Dr. Huxtable hung the painting over the living-room mantel, where it would stay for the duration of the series.” Coors used the painting for an ad celebrating Martin Luther King Jr. Day. The ad uses the slogan “His Truth Is Marching On” with a subtitle “In memory of the dream …”
Here’s the original painting:
Guinness Ad #51: Guinness Grenades
Our 51st Guinness poster by John Gilroy was, like last week’s, probably from World War 2, and shows a group of soldiers practicing their grenade throwing, with one of them substituting a bottle of Guinness for a grenade. Their commanding officer certainly looks surprised to see the Guinness fly.
Here’s a slightly different version showing one additional soldier.
Beer In Ads #289: Albion Brewery, We Lead The Way
Friday’s ad is for the Albion Brewery in Leeds. I’m not sure when the ad is from, though I believe the brewery was founded in 1897 and closed in either 1933 or 1948, the UK National Archives isn’t sure. If the truck is any indication it’s got to be pretty early in the history of automotive transportation. And at some point they stopped giving driver’s licenses to lions, didn’t they?
Beer In Ads #288: Ballantine’s Wagon Train
Thursday’s ad is a Ballantine ad from 1947. Part of the history ads featuring clay dioramas, this one shows a wagon heading west, passing a saloon where the bartender is coming out with a mug of beer. The wagon driver’s rope is making the three-ring Ballantine logo, which would be impressive if someone could actually do that in real life.
Beer In Ads #287: Fancy That!
Wednesday’s ad is a Budweiser ad from 1958. The text “Fancy That!” at the top of the ad seems to be trying to equate the beer as being as “fancy” as the woman holding the lacy fan. I’ve called Bud a lot of things, but fancy was never one of them.
Beer In Ads #286: Brighten Your Holidays With Full Flavor
Tuesday’s ad is for Carling Black Label from 1972 featuring a curio box of Carling beer and related paraphenalia. The slogan is “Brighten Your Holidays With Full Flavor,” though it doesn’t look particularly festive to me. I do love the expression on the blonde’s face in the portrait in the upper right box.
Beer In Ads #285: Set Up The Fun With Light Refreshment
Monday’s ad from the 1950s for Schlitz. It’s a bowling ad with a pun. “Set Up the Fun with Light Refreshment.” It cracks me up that he can’t put down the bowling ball long enough to drink his own beer, he needs help.
Guinness Ad #50: Spitfire
Our 50th Guinness poster by John Gilroy was most likely from World War 2, and shows a Spitfire airplane “eying” and speeding toward a bottle of Guinness as a mechanic on the ground races to grab his beer first. It’s slogan is the familiar “My Goodness, My Guinness.”
Beer In Ads #284: A Bud Can Sandwich
Friday’s ad is a 1969 Budweiser ad showing a can of their beer in between a hero sandwich, with the slogan “The Great American Hero for the Great American Hero.” I’m not sure I’d want to bite into that sandwich, I’d be afraid I’d lose a tooth. Or it might taste metallic.
