Wednesday’s holiday ad is for Falstaff, from 1914. Nice to see that after Santa came down the chimney, he had something other than milk and cookies waiting for him.
Beer In Ads #502: Look What They’ve Left For Me!
Tuesday’s holiday ad is for the Canadian beer Dow Ale, which until around 1966, was the most popular beer in Quebec. This ad looks to be a little earlier, probably in the 1950s. Given that red is he only color (apart from black, of course) in the ad, it’s curious that they didn’t make Santa’s suit red, too, but I suppose they wanted to keep the focus on the beer. “Look what they’ve left me me!” I hope every home didn’t leave Santa a case. He’d never get to all the houses in one night, or he’d probably get pulled over by the air force for flying erratically.
Beer In Ads #501: Miller High Life’s Christmas Barn
Monday’s holiday ad is for Miller High Life showing an idyllic country scene complete with newly fallen snow, a barn and silo, with a small chapel in the distance, as a horse and sleigh pulls two couples through the white landscape. Ah, Christmas like it never was.
Beer In Ads #500: Merry Christmas All Around!
Friday’s holiday ad — believe it or not, the 500th ad I’ve posted! — is for Schaefer beer. I don’t think it is, strictly speaking, an ad but a display piece, presumably for a bar or a retail store. I’m not sure of its age, but I’m guessing 1950s. I like the subtle double meaning of the slogan “Merry Christmas All Around!” Or maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it seems like both wishing everyone around a Merry Christmas and buying them “a round” … of Schaefer.
Beer In Ads #499: Caroling Alone With Rheingold
Thursday’s holiday ad is another one for Rheingold Extra Dry Lager Beer, from 1952. This time, Miss Rheingold 1952, Anne Hogan, is out singing Christmas carols by herself, which means she has to hold both the lamp and the songbook.
Percy Street’s Beer Can Christmas Tree
Here’s a fun one. These are the kinds of press releases that help me get into the spirit of the holidays. The Percy Street Barbecue, a Philadelphia restaurant specializing in barbecue, also carries “over 60 varieties of canned beer” that they serve in custom galvanized steel buckets. Order 5 cans, and the 6th one is free.
For Christmas this year, they created an 8-foot tree made entirely of beer cans, over 400 in all. It “took General Manager Aric Ferrell and Desiree Howie, a staff member and local artist, over 12 hours to assemble.”
Now that’s the spirit. Who’s thirsty now.
(photos by Drea Rane.)
Beer In Ads #497: Know The Real Joy Of Good Living …
Tuesday’s holiday ad is for Schlitz, from 1959. The ad shows a couple, with the man holding a beer and the woman a small, wrapped Christmas gift. But what’s not clear is whether they’re outside or if that snowy tree-lined scene behind them is looking through a large window. Because they don’t look like they’re dressed warmly enough to be outside, but I see no signs of a window, either. But I love the slogan. “Know the real joy of good living ….”
Beer In Ads #496: O’Keefe’s Dans L’esprit Des Fetes
Monday’s holiday ad is for the Canadian beer O’Keefe Ale, from 1958. With the slogan “… dans l’esprit des fetes!” — “in the holiday spirit” — it features a fetching couple under the mistletoe pouring a glass of O’Keefe Ale.
Christmas Beer Bans
With Christmas falling on a Sunday this year, apparently more than half of the states still have antiquated blue laws on their books, restricting alcohol sales on Sundays, Christmas or both. As of about a year ago, at least fourteen states still enforced some kind of Sunday restriction. But according to a report today on OpenMarket.org entitled Christmas Liquor Bans: Is Your State on the List?, over half of the fifty states, plus D.C., still have some sort of restriction that will effect people in those states’ ability to buy a drink this Christmas. Happily, California’s not on the list, but with 27 places listed, that’s a lot of people who can’t get a drink this December 25. If you live in one of those jurisdictions, be sure to stock up early.
Beer In Ads #494: This Year Buy Him A Beer
Thursday’s ad is holiday ad for Michelob, from 1963. Their suggestion, “This year buy him a beer” seems like a good one, though in truth Michelob probably wouldn’t be the one I”d want, but maybe that’s just me. I love how they spin it in the ad copy. They refer to giving Michelob as an “unhackneyed” gift, “whether beer lover or bottle fancier.”
