Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1943. This World War 2 ad features the animals marching down a hill, maybe to the slaughter, since it’s their meat that is the subject here. Even during the war, Americans are very well nourished, apparently in part due to Anheuser-Busch’s yeast being used to fortify animal feed. Hmm, seems like a bit of a stretch, but it is making me hungry.
Wednesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1944. This World War 2 ad features a group of pilgrims walking through a snow-filled forest with the headline “Not an A Card in Ye Group,” which is a reference to rationing during the war. If you had an “A Card” you were permitted 3-4 gallons of gas per week, whereas a “B card” got you 8 and a “C card” got even more, but was reserved for doctors, mail carrier, railroad workers, ministers, etc. There were also “T cards” for trucks and buses and “X cards” for VIPs. It was primarily to save rubber, which was in short supply, not gas.
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1944. This World War 2 ad features a Colonial American scene with “Ye Olde Melting Pot” on a street corner. I doubt that’s what actually happened, but I know there were scrap metal drives during World War 2. I have a newspaper clipping when my mother was a little girl when she was made a general in the “tin can army” for collecting a lot of metal (primarily because my grandfather’s job gave him access to it). What it has to do with beer is less clear, except that apparently the brewery also gave to the war effort.
Monday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1964. Taking a break from the World War 2 theme, this ad features an election theme, with everyone in favor of cheaper beer, but Anheuser-Busch recommending you “vote twice for Budweiser.”
Sunday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1942. This ad features the curious story of because of World War 2 imported fish oil from Norway — a good source of Vitamin D — was impossible to obtain, but thankfully Budweiser came to the rescue and offered Vitamin D from another source, their yeast.
Saturday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1943. This ad features a long line of soldiers and workman forming a ring around a giant clock, with the headline “Be sure all the essential B Vitamins give You a full day’s work.”
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1942. This ad features another wartime history lesson on how much research Budweiser has done into barley and their “Corn Products Division.” They also list eight other by-products that their research has led to.
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1944. This ad features a history lesson on how much work was done by the “missus” of the average minuteman, with the obvious analogy to wives back home during World War II with so many husbands in the military overseas fighting the war. She does not look very happy. I think she needs a beer.
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1943. In this ad, featuring the Bald Eagle soaring with U.S. war planes in a nakedly patriotic ad (it was mid-WW2 after all), you’ll be surprised to learn what the ad is actually about. Despite the all-American imagery, the ad is about refrigeration, and gliders, and how A-B converted their refrigeration division to make gliders for the military to help the war effort. And if you look at the bottom, A-B was doing a lot for the war effort, and wasn’t shy about letting people now, probably still smarting from the prohibition years and trying to get back in their customers’ and especially the teetotalers good graces.
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1963. In this ad, two six-packs of Budweiser cans share a tree with two cardinals, as if they were the fruit in a beer tree. If only beer grew on trees ….
