Friday’s ad is for “the Pride of Canada,” a claim made by Molson in this ad from the — what do you think? — sixties or seventies? It also includes this classic quote from founder John Molson, from 1786, when he would have been 23 years old. “An honest brew makes its own friends.” I wonder if he ever really said it?
Thursday’s ad is for Falstaff cans, presumably from the sixties since they’re pull-tabs. I assume it was probably a fall ad, playing on football terminology. “First down. Five to go.” But best of all, check out the tagline at the bottom. “Beer after beer, the choicest product of the brewer’s art. Everywhere.” Now that’s pure gold.
Wednesday’s ad is for Miller Lite, from 1982. Given Matt Cain’s amazing perfect game earlier tonight for the Giants, I thought a baseball ad would be appropriate. In this case, it’s “Mr. Baseball” Bob Uecker and his self-deprecating humor. Still, it’s pretty funny. “Great ballplayers drink Lite because it’s less filling. I know. I asked one.”
Tuesday’s ad is for the Canadian beer O’Keefe’s and specifically their Old Vienna. I’m not sure when it’s from, though the 1950s seems a safe bet. The tagline, “reach for an Old Vienna” is being acted out as an unseen hand passes a case of beer over the head of the woman of the house as her husband reaches out to take possession. Her expression is priceless, her lips purse in alarm perhaps worrying that the case will be dropped on her head or ruin the salad she’s holding in her hands. Now that’s “party time … anytime!” Oh, and does that kitchen background look fake? Look closely at the window.
Monday’s ad is for Falstaff. I’m not sure of its age, but I’m guessing the 1950s, when apparently people dressed up not just around the house but also when casually visiting friends. Because “When Company Comes … Bring on the Falstaff.” And I just love this. “It’s good to see old friends enjoying themselves with the friendliest refreshment that ever bid a guest welcome … tall, cold bottles of beer.” See, again beer is referred to as “friendly.” I really want to see that return. Beer is friendly, but we never say so anymore.
Friday’s ad is for the Australian brand, Cairns. The ad looks to me eye to be from the 1960s or 70s. The “take home Draught” and “Brewery Bottled” seem almost quaint now but were probably a new angle at that time.
Thursday’s ad is for Rheingold, from 1961. The ad features Miss Rheingold for 1961, Janet Mick, at a bowling alley. Maybe it’s just me, but it sure looks like this date is not going well. The smile on her face looks so forced to me, like she’s pretending to have a good time. Or maybe he’s just an incredible douchebag. I just love the propensity for brewers in the fifties and early sixties to refer to their beer as being “friendly” and other similar adjectives. In this one, Rheingold is characterized as being “Friendly, fresh’ning, happily dry.” Nice.
Wednesday’s ad is also for Budweiser, from 1908. In the first two decades of the last century — the run up to prohibition — there was a lot going on in the beer world. It was period of vast consolidation. Increasingly, breweries finally started worrying that prohibition could really become a reality and began doing pro-beer ads. This one is partly hit-you-over-the-head obvious, and also somewhat subtle. Obviously, the main thrust of the ad copy is that Anheuser-Busch in 1908 employed 6,000 at just one “plant.” That sure sounds like a lot for a single brewery. They go on to say there are 750,000 people employed by all of America’s breweries and not less than 4 million “women and children” who are “directly dependent upon their pay envelopes,” with an additional 400,000 employed on farms that produce the crops necessary to make beer. Perhaps more importantly, all of those employees who work in the beer industry “love their homes,” plus “they are good, honest citizens, temperate, patriotic and true.”
On the more subtle side, the ad is designed to look like it’s burting out of a regular page in the newspaper, in this case the Washington Post. BUt look closer at the headlines. Here are a few of them: “Beer on the Mayflower,” “The Drink of the Great,” “World’s Decisive Battles Won By Beer Drinkers,” “The Grain of the Gods,” “Food Value of Malt Brews,” and “The Temperance Value of Beer.” Great stuff.
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from 1949. This one is part of their long-running “there’s nothing like it …” series. But the story that the illustration tells is a bit ambiguous. A couple is relaxing by the fire, their eyes fixed on another woman, just coming in from the ski slopes. But look closely. There are exactly three, not two, full glasses of beer. She was expected. Is this a seduction scene? Or is it merely my overactive imagination? Personally, I think the answer is all in the eyes. What do you read into their expressions?
Monday’s ad is for Hamm’s, from 1950. The Hamm’s bottles in the ad don’t look like any I’ve seen before, and I have to wonder if PBR was unhappy that Hamm’s used a red ribbon on the label. I love the tagline. “So Light … So Smooth … So Mellow.”
