Thursday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1940. A bottle of Ballentine Ale sits in front of a framed picture of a 100-year old ship to celebrate Ballantine’s 100th anniversary. In fact, the ship is coming out of the frame, as is a red flag/handkerchief/whatever, which is actually pretty cool. The subheading, “The Flavor of Ballantine’s Ale is a Century Old — A Century Great” seems odd. I know they don’t mean it this way, but it strikes me that they’re saying the flavor is old, 100 years old, which doesn’t seem like much of a compliment.

Wednesday’s ad is for Ballantine Beer, from the 1970s. It’s a simple black and white ad showing a can of beer and a tagline enticing people to sing along. “And if you feel like singing …” is followed by their jingle that begins “Hey, get your cold beer.” Oddly enough, it does make me feel like singing.

Friday’s ad is another baseball-themed one for Ballantine Premium, from 1968. This one is “Go Phillies!” and shows the three broadcasters for the Philadelphia games. The only one I recognize is Ashburn, who also used to play for the Phils (but then I was an Orioles fan as a rebellious kid). This ad also features another generic illustration of baseball action. Just what the hell is that symbol on the uniform of the player sliding into home?

Monday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1957. The ad claims that “American taste is returning to the genuine in food and drink,” to which it’s hard not to think that for 1957: “not yet.” But check out the woman in the green dress. Is she just incredibly happy to see everybody, or are they playing charades.

Monday’s ad is for Ballantine Beer, from 1954. This must have been ad laying the groundwork for low-calorie diet beer, as light beer was known in those days. In fact, that’s why it flopped initially, because people didn’t like the idea of beer being called “diet,” though it seems to have worked fine for Coke. It’s funny how that brought red belt draws your attention to her waistline but then the dress below fans out so it maker figure look disproportionally hourglass, although I guess that was a thing once, wasn’t it. I also love the tagline captioning the photo. “Brewed to the American taste … to the American figure.” Hilarious.

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.

Sunday’s ad is another one for Ballantine Ale, this time from 1947. It’s another great illustration, but the disembodied arms holding the beer seem just a little bit creepy to me. But for one of the few times (maybe the only time) I can recall, both the bottle and the glass are half-full, which is nice to see for a change. Also, the way the Borromean rings of the Ballantine logo are shown, with the beaded bubbles slightly larger, it reminded me of the way a bicycle chain looks, as if the three rings were made out of a bicycle chain, which would be kind of interesting.

Saturday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1957. “Enjoy the Genuine.” I guess back then “Only Ballantine Ale brews ‘Brewer’s Gold’ into Genuine Golden Ale Flavor!” Another nice illustration from the golden age of advertising art, again showing a full glass but only a partially emptied bottle.

Friday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale, from 1954. It’s a beautifully illustrated ad, done by Dorothy Monet, a well known advertising artist of the day. It depicts an elegant dinner party, made all the more “special” by serving Ballantine Ale, of course, on a silver tray. There’s some great ad copy, referring to is as a “sociable beverage” and that it has the “time-honored flavor of all” which contains the “lightness and liveliness Americans prefer in their brewed beverages.” I’m convinced.

Sunday’s ad is yet another one for Ballantine Ale, this one from 1946. This is from a series of billboard ads from around the same time I stumbled upon, though I’m sure the originals in color are more spectacular. In this ad for Ballantine, they’re advertising with a man at the beach, buried in the sand. Wearing quite the floppy hat, and a goofy grin. An unseen person is holding a bottle of beer in front of him, apparently saying; “Did Somebody Say Ballantine.” I think they’ll have to hold the bottle to his lips and tip his head back, too.