Monday’s ad is for Bieres de Longwy, a French beer, I believe. That’s a guess, but Longwy is in northeastern France. Why doesn’t every pint of beer have such a lovely woman swimming in it?
Beer In Ads #791: Bieres De Longwy
How To Efficiently Drink Pilsner Urquell
This is an interesting piece of breweriana I stumbled upon. It’s from around 1900 and apparently is “an instruction manual how to efficiently drink Pilsner Urquell.” Although Google Translates it as “A glass of Pilsner Urquell in one fell swoop,” so I’m not entirely certain. It looks like a postcard to me.
Click here to see the advertisement full size.
Beer In Ads #790: Anheuser-Busch Will Buy This Barley
Friday’s ad is for Anheuser-Busch, from 1913. It’s a beautiful illustration, but the way the boy is pointing down at the field coupled with the authoritarian-sounding “Anheuser-Busch Will Buy This Barley” (say it with a Colonel Klink accent), it almost feels ominous. And does anybody know if A-B only uses Bohemia’s Saazer hops, or ever did exclusively? Stan? But a cool image.
Beer In Ads #789: Starts Where Beer Leaves Off
Thursday’s ad is for Country Club Malt Liquor, from 1966, brewed by the Pearl Brewing Company of San Antonio, Texas and St. Joseph, Missouri. The selling points seem quite odd, like “it’s short on head, but long on what you drink malt liquor for,” which of course is for the “walloping good taste.” Uh-huh. That’s why people drink malt liquor. I always wondered that.
Stories & Adventures: An Introspective History of the Brewers Association
Here’s an interesting addition to the historical record of craft beer. The Brewers Association has created an audio record of stories from their early days, as related by “some of the major players in the industry,” and recorded by newly appointed Brewers Association Board of Directors Chair, Sam Calagione, who quips. “We’re lucky to be in an industry that’s only 30 or so years young—so vibrant and growing—but that our pioneers are still so active in our industry. We have a great opportunity to record the beginnings and evolution of our industry from the folks who started it.” Even though it’s a YouTube video, there’s no video, but instead a still image appears of the person speaking, so you can follow along with who is talking. The whole thing lasts two-and-a-half hours! Enjoy.
Beer In Ads #788: Cool Off!
Wednesday’s ad is for Old Vienna, the Canadian O’Keefe’s brand, from 1953. While painting the floor red — why?, only heaven knows — the family dog knocks over both the painter and the can of paint. What to do next? The ad suggests that you “cool off” and “open a bottle of sparkling, light-bodied Old Vienna Beer. Is that before or after you smack the dog with a rolled-up newspaper?
Beer In Ads #787: Curious Neighbors
Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1949, and is one in their “I was curious” series. In adjoining apartments in one of those beautiful brick buildings with ivy-covered walls and planters that don’t really exist in the real world, the residents run into one another and the couple invite down for a glass of Schlitz. I love how dressed up everybody is just relaxing on their patio.
Beer In Ads #786: Ed McMahon Picks A Pair
Monday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1967, and features Johnny Carson’s sidekick Ed McMahon. He’s look relatively normal in the foreground, a button-down man in a grey flannel suit, but the Budweiser suit he’s wearing in the ad behind him? Hiyoooo!
Beer In Ads #785: Good Beer For Good Fellows
Friday’s ad is from the early 1930s, for Pabst Blue Ribbon, though it references the NRA — not that one, the other one — in this case the National Recovery Administration. The NRA was the agency charged with implementing the National Industrial Recovery Act, passed in June of 1933, as part of the New Deal effort to combat the Great Depression. Since it was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1935, there’s a pretty short window when the ad most likely ran. Still, the illustration is pretty cool, and looks like the later Beer Belongs ads that the industry ran after World War 2.
Beer In Ads #784: Camping With Schlitz
Thursday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1953, showing a scene of a couple camping. They must have just arrived, because he’s just making the fire and her hair looks perfect. Not to mention that kicky sweater ensemble she’s wearing, that looks like the perfect camping outfit. Given the way she’s holding that can of beer up in the air so triumphantly, I think his plan was to take her into the woods and get her drunk. In that, it appears, he may have succeeded.
