Wednesday’s ad is for Rheingold Beer, from 1943, and features Miss Rheingold from that year, Sonia Gover. Holding a hammer in her hand, she’s presumably just hung the wreath. Nice job. Was “The Season’s Greetings” already painted on the wall?
Beer In Ads #1406: 62 Individual Reasons To Drink
Tuesday’s ad is for the Coopers 62, from 2011. Although it’s a newer ad, given that I post my own reasons to drink for any given day, this ad certainly spoke to me, despite most of the reasons being fairly pedestrian. But in a sense, that was the point, that any reason was good enough to drink this Australian beer. Whether that’s true, I couldn’t tell you. I like their sparkling ale, but they don’t strike me as a pilsner brewery.
Beer In Ads #1405: Hay, Good Wholesome Beer
Monday’s ad is for the Brewers’ Society, from 1956. Similar to the ads in America by the United States Brewers Foundation that ran around the same time, the British ads used taglines like “Good Wholesome BEER” and “The best long drink in the world!” After working in the fields all day, making giant hay bales, who wouldn’t be dreaming of a pint of beery goodness? But I love the way they put it. “Beer refreshes you all right — but it does much more than that. It’s an invigorating drink. Beer bucks you up as well as cools you down.”
Beer In Ads #1404: The Height Of Hospitality
Sunday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1911. I love the outfit on the server, that must be some posh establishment he works for. I love that Pabst is working so hard to position PBR as the classy beer, and especially this sentiment: “Pabst Blue Ribbon is the ultimate choice of all who have a keen faculty of selection.” Priceless. People who who are good at picking things?
Beer In Ads #1403: To Everyone Who’s Slipping Into The Groove …
Saturday’s ad is also for Budweiser, another later one from 1984, although it feels more dates than its thirty years. Those are some very happy-looking people spinning records. Records … anybody remember those? I know I”m slipping into the groove just looking at them and remembering the 1980s.
Beer In Ads #1402: Bud Waterfall
Friday’s ad is for Budweiser, a later one from 1983. We just had 5-7 inches of rain dumped on us (not that it will help the drought) but this ad of a waterfall of Budweiser flowing from Bud Can Mountain seemed appropriate. They do say shampooing with beer is good for your hair, but taking a shower under a waterfall would be even cooler.
Beer In Ads #1401: Every Drop Tells You Why
Thursday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1965. It’s gatefold two-pager, with an empty bottle of Bud on its side. Only some residual foam remains in the bottle, slowly dripping out, with the tagline “… Every drop tells you why Budweiser is the largest-selling beer in the world.” But does it? Does it really? I remain unconvinced.
Where America Got Its Booze
Here’s a fun article I stumbled upon that appeared in Popular Science. “Where America Gets Its Booze” was a feature story in their May 1930 issue.
“Where America Gets Its Booze” is an interview with America’s “Prohibition Commissioner,” Dr. James M. Doran, who was a chemist. And boy, doesn’t he look like a fun guy in that photo. According to a Time magazine article from the year before, even his wife was trying to help, as “she marshaled a platoon of reinforcements in the form of recipes for nonalcoholic cocktails. She had prepared a Book of Juices to meet the onslaught of the ‘winter social season just ahead.’ She announced a few of her recipes in advance. Explained Mrs. Doran: ‘Prohibition took something away from the American people, but we can give them something just as good—a cocktail that satisfies but does not inebriate.'” Well, that should do it.
Beer In Ads #1400: Windisch-Muhlhauser Brewing Co.
Wednesday’s ad is for the Windisch-Muhlhauser Brewing Co., from some time in the late 1800s. The brewery was founded in 1866, in Cincinnati, by Conrad Windisch and Gottleib and Heinrich Muhlhauser, but was later known as the Lion Brewery and later the Burger Brewing Co., before closing in either 1934 or 1973, depending on whose account you believe.
Beer In Ads #1399: H. Clausen & Son
Tuesday’s ad is for Bock Beer by H. Clausen & Son, from 1879. According to BeerHistory.com’s page Brewing in America in 1879, there were 365 breweries in New York at that time, and H. Clausen & Son was the 9th largest, with barrels sold just under 90,000. it was located at 47th St. & 2nd Ave. The Library of Congress describes the ad as “showing a woman sitting back with her legs up, balancing on one foot a barrel with a goat standing on it; she is holding up a large glass of beer.” I think it looks more like a child, though, not a woman. Either way, what an odd position.
