Sunday’s holiday ad is for Budweiser, from 1959. Part of Bud’s “Where There’s Life … There’s Bud” series, the ad shows a woman who’s busy wrapping presents, while an unseen hand is pouring her a beer. See the delight on her face? I also love the ad copy for this one. “Just a warm wish to you and yours for a happy, perfectly wonderful Holiday Season.” Even back in the late 1950s the war against Xmas was raging. “Holiday Season?” Bah.
Saturday’s ad is for Boswell’s Ales & Porter, from early last century. A Canadian beer brand, beginning in 1909, it became part of National Breweries Limited, although it apparently Boswell’s originally opened in 1668, making it North America’s 2nd oldest brewery and Canada’s first (According to a 1910 newspaper ad).
Friday’s ad is for Navy’s Christmas Ale, from the 1930s. It was a brand of the Brouwerij La Marine, from Brussels, Belgium. According to one collecting website. “The La Marine brewery was formed when it took over the Marly Brewery which itself was a merging of the Struyen, Dineur and Dumortier breweries with the l’Alliance brewery. It was subsequently taken over by Wielemans-Ceuppens and stopped brewing in 1980.”
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1962. The ad depicts a holiday dinner party, but I especially like the goofy expression on the woman in yellow dress staring at the man pouring himself a beer, as she’s about to shove some food in her mouth. Also, I love the ad copy copy from this period, using emotional adjectives to describe flavor and tastes. In this case, Budweiser tastes “cheerful.” I wonder what that tastes like?
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from the not terribly distant time of 1990. But it’s a great retro-looking ad harkening back to a simpler time, and it certainly makes me wish for snow. Is that Santa driving the eight non-so-tiny clydesdales?
Wednesday’s ad is for Blatz Beer, from 1945. It’s a simple ad showing an attractive woman glancing up at some mistletoe hanging above her, with an expectant expression on her face. But what I love in this ad is at the bottom, what is perhaps the best approach to not being the best-selling beer since Avis declared themselves to be number 2, insisting “we try harder.” Blatz marketed themselves as “Fast Becoming America’s Favorite.” Quite a lot of wiggle room in that one.
Tuesday’s ad is for Cerveza Polar, from some time after the 1940s, since that’s when production began for the Polar brand in Venezuela. This ad appears to be for the Cuban market, so it may be pre-Castro since I doubt there were many beer ads after 1959 … or Christmas, for that matter.
Monday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from the 1950s. Even though I grew up in the “tradition-rich East” Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, having been in California for almost thirty years I’m a tad offended at Miller’s implication that there’s no traditions out West. But given that odd holiday spread that the lady in red is putting out, I’m not so sure about her having a “special touch of gracious elegance.”
Friday’s ad is for Arrow Beer, from 1946. A holiday billboard ad for the Baltimore brewer, the original Globe Brewing Co., whose tagline was “It Hits the Spot.”
Thursday’s ad is for Japanese beer, possibly Nippon Beer, and is from around the 1950s, give or take. It’s always great seeing Santa Claus holding an armful of beer bottles, but what on earth is that unholy orange soda doing there?
