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Beer In Ads #10: Boris Vallejo’s Michelob Man

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Today’s ad was painted by one of the most famous science fiction/fantasy artists of all time, Boris Vallejo. If you don’t know who he he is, then you’ve never read the genre, because he’s worked for nearly everybody and has also done a number of album covers. His most famous characters include Conan, Doc Savage and Tarzan.

According to the biography at his home page:

Born in Lima, Peru, Boris attended the National School of Fine Arts in his native country before immigrating to the United States in 1964. He has since done a great volume of work for the Fantasy field, having worked for virtually every major publishing house with a science fiction/fantasy line. Boris has also illustrated for album covers, video box art and motion picture advertising.

You can also see a lot of his art at his official website (along with his wife, artist Julie Bell) and chronologically at the Boris Vallejo Gallery.

If I had to guess, I’d say this may have been for something internal at A-B because notice that the man in the painting, who may or may not be August Busch III, is crushing a can of Heineken, undoubtedly a primary target of Michelob’s marketing efforts. There’s also a strange triangular-shaped object between the two beers that resembles a Toblerone package, but I can’t figure what that might be. Anybody have any ideas?

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Beer In Ads #9: Regal Pale Skiing

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Today’s ad is most likely from the 1950s or early 60s, and is for Regal Pale Ale, a beer that was at least distributed in California as late as the 1960s, though I’m not sure where it was brewed and I can’t find my copy of American Breweries II under the mess that is my office. It’s been cold this week, not frozen tundra cold or even Pennsylvania-cold, but it has been California-cold with the kids delighting in seeing frost on the ground and watching me scrape ice off the car windows. That means ski weather, so I thought this ad of a skiing beer can cleverly using other beer paraphernalia to complete the picture was appropriate. I wonder what they considered the other great American beer?

Coincidentally, New Jersey’s legendary Heavyweight Brewing used the name Regal Pale Ale for the first of their OneTimeOnePlace (OTOP) series back in 2003.

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Beer In Ads #8: Eugene Oge’s Biere au Diable

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Today’s ad is an old classic, by Eugene Oge, a French illustrator who did a number of great beer adverts during his lifetime from 1861-1936. He was a major figure in the Belle Epoque and did many outstanding ads for resorts, food, and all sorts of beverage brands. This ad, known as Biere au Diable (Beer to the Devil) was done in 1912. I’ll undoubtedly feature more of his posters, but this is probably my favorite. I love the bright colors, the contrast and the simplicity of it. As they (you know who “they” are) say, “in heaven there is no beer.” If true, then this is where we must go to drink it. I’m not spending eternity without beer. I’ll meet you there.
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Beer In Ads #7: National Premium & Turkey

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Today’s ad is more modern, because it’s Thanksgiving Day and I wanted to use one that was done for the holiday. This juicy turkey ad was for National Premium Beer, subtitled a “Pale Dry Beer,” and brewed by National Brewing of Baltimore, Maryland from 1936-1995. While accounts of the brewery’s origin vary from around 1850, 1855 or 1872 (and under several different names), after Prohibition ended, it returned as National Brewing with its most famous beer being National Bohemian, or “Natty Boh,” which today is owned by Pabst and brewed by Miller. This ad is for their premium beer, and is from the 1950s. Hoppy Thanksgiving.

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Pete Brown On Beer Marketing

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While you should know Pete Brown from his books, especially what is arguably the best beer book of the year, Hops and Glory, he began his career in marketing and worked on several high-profile ad campaigns for well-known beer brands. On Wednesday in the UK’s Daily Mail, Pete had an interesting article giving his perspective on the present state of beer marketing. It’s entitled “The rise and fall of Britain’s favourite beers: Why brewers are desperate for us to spend £4 on a pint of lager”. Although it details British ad campaigns you may not be familiar with, it’s still worth a read, as many of the points he makes I think are universal.

Beer In Ads #5: Franziskaner Leist Brau

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The name Franziskaner today is most often associated with the Bavarian weiss beer brewed by Spaten, but originally it was a separate company known as Franziskaner-Leist-Bräu. The word “Franziskaner” means Franciscan, which is why there’s a monk on the labels nowadays. They merged with Spaten in 1922, so today’s ad is undoubtedly before then. Poster companies selling a reproduction of today’s ad all say it’s circa 1930, but given the earlier merger I’m not sure that can be right, unless of course it continued as a separate brand in their advertising. The artist’s name is either Maurus or Maueus, but that’s a close as I can pin it down.

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Beer In Ads #4: Thirst Is Only Through Good Beer

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Today’s beer ad is from Germany. I saw an original of it framed at the Franconian Brewery Museum in Bamberg when I was there a couple of years ago. It was originally an advertisement for Gaffel Kolsch. The text reads “Durst wird durch Bier erst schon,” which Google translates as Thirst Is Only Through Good Beer. That’s the best-sounding one I came across, though I suspect it’s closer to something like “Thirst Is Only Quenched Through Good Beer.” Other translators came up with “thirst becomes through beer first already,” “thirst becomes by beer only already” and “thirst with beer is just been.” If you’re fluent in German, let me know what a better translation is. Still, I love the idea of being out in the desert and the mirage you see is a giant glass of beer. What better sight could there be under such circumstances?

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It was also sold as a poster without the text.

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Top Ten Tuesday: Top 10 Beer Slogans

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It’s been several months since I’ve done a Top 10 list, primarily because it’s been too hard to keep up with them weekly. So I think I’ll try once a month instead. I’ve been collecting old beer slogans for a project (more on that later) and so I thought I’d pick my ten favorite ones. I should stress — though it should be obvious — that my choices are about the efficacy of the slogans themselves, regardless of the way I might feel about the beer itself. So for my 19th Top 10 List, I present my favorite beer slogans. Let me know your faves. Here’s List #19:

Top 10 Beer Slogans

   It’s what your right arm’s for. John Courage Beer
   If you’ve got the time, we’ve got the beer. Miller
   When You’re Out of Schlitz, You’re Out Of Beer. Schlitz
   Guinness Is Good For You. Guinness
   Fresh. Smooth. Real. It’s all here. Bud Light
   The Happiest Taste In Beer Today. Gunther Beer
   Gunther is an old brand from Baltimore, Maryland that hasn’t been around for decades. But I love the idea that beer can taste “happy.” What exactly does “happy” taste like? Being a west coast guy, I assume they just meant hoppy.
   Hey Mabel, Black Label. Carling Black Label
   After a lackluster decade of poor sales, in 1951, Carling came up with the now-iconic Mabel the Waitress campaign, hiring New York actress Jean (sometimes spelled “Jeanne”) Goodspeed to play Mabel in TV commercials and print ads. Sales skyrocketed. In fact, they kept using her image long after she left the business in the mid-19500s to start a family and eventually even included an animated version in later ads. The Mabel campaign finally ended in the early 1970s. For me, I think what made the slogan was the whistle that precedes the slogan in television and, presumably, radio spots. Also, Mabel’s wink and a nod at the end of each ad is also priceless, even when they went to an animated version they wisely kept that element.

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Below are two Black Label ads, one an original live action one followed by a later animated commercial. (Note, the sound starts late in the first one. Also, check out the maniacal look of the third bartender. What’s up with that dude?)

   Here’s to good friends, tonight is kind of special. Lowenbrau
   This slogan is as much about the song as it is the words. It was sung by Arthur Prysock, an American jazz singer originally from South Carolina. Here are the lyrics and below them is a television commercial featuring the song from the mid-1980s, when the brand peaked.

Here’s to good friends,
Tonight is kind of special.
The beer we’ll pour
must say something more, somehow.
So tonight (tonight),
Tonight,
Let it be Löwenbräu (let it be Löwenbräu).
It’s been so long.
Hey, I’m glad to see ya.
Raise your glass.
Here’s to health and happiness.
So tonight (tonight),
Let it be all the best.

   The Friendly Beer For Modern People. Reading Beer
   I understand most people won’t know this one, because it’s a local favorite I grew up with in Reading, Pennsylvania. But beginning in the 1950s, they started trying to convince people Reading Premium Beer was not their Dad’s beer but was for modern people, a.k.a. young people, and that it was friendly. Like happy, I just love the association they’re trying to make to persuade people their beer is more friendly than other rival beers. To me, that’s just genius marketing. It’s not that other beers don’t taste as good, it’s just that ours is friendlier. Who wouldn’t want to drink a beer that’s friendly?
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   The One Beer to Have When You’re Having More Than One. Schaefer
   What’s not to love about this slogan? Simple, to the point, and with one of the catchiest jingles ever. It would probably never fly today, because neo-prohibitionists would immediately accuse them of encouraging binge drinking since in their addled little minds more than one already is too many. The video below is not the original version of the jingle, but a jazzier, cooler one. Enjoy!

schaefer-coaster

It was, as always, really difficult to keep the list to ten, and a great many colorful beer slogans were left on the cutting room floor, mostly newer ones since I focused on older ones in the list above. Here’s a few more that might have made the list had I gone for more modern slogans:

Always a Good Decision. Samuel Adams; Drink in the World. Sapporo; Hooray Beer! Red Stripe; Life Is What You Pour Into It. Pyramid; Off-Cented Ales For Off-Centered People. Dogfish Head; You’re Not Worthy. Stone

And here’s a few older one I also like but didn’t have room for in the Top 10:

Always Smooth, Even When You’re Not. Keystone; The beer that made Milwaukee famous. Schlitz; Believe. Guinness; The Champagne of Bottled Beers. Miller High Life; For the man who really knows beer. Ortlieb; If I wanted water, I would have asked for water. Labatt Blue; It doesn’t get any better than this. Old Milwaukee; It’s what’s inside that truly counts. Dreher; When you say Budweiser, you’ve said it all. Budweiser; When you see the three-ring-sign, ask the man for Ballantine. Ballantine Ale

Let me know your favorites, and if you see any that you think should have made the list, please post a comment.

Also, if you have any ideas for future Top 10 lists you’d like to see, drop me a line.

Art In Ads #3: The King Of Spades

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Today’s beer ad is another beautiful illustration, though I have no idea either what beer is being advertised but the artist is Herbert Leupin, a Swiss poster artist who lived from 1916 to 1999. This work was created in 1953. Whatever the brewing company, it’s a beautiful illustration. Perhaps if the King of Spades had offered his beer to Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland, she might not have been so mean.

The King of Spades

Beer In Ads #2: The Spanish Senorita

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Today’s beer ad is a beautiful illustration by Achille Mauzan, an Italian artist who created many posters and other illustrations during the Art Deco period from the 1920s-40s and beyond. He was born Luciano Achille Mauzan in the French Riviera but spent most of his life in Italy and Argentina. This ad was created for an unknown Spanish beer, depicting a senorita, “adorned in customary garb, having this brand fixed atop a staff-like scepter.”

Achille Mauzan: The Spanish Senorita