Wednesday’s ad is for Pabst, from 1936. It’s actually for Pabst Export Beer and specifically in the “Original Pabst TAPaCan.” I’m not quite sure about that slogan, “Make It Pabst … While The Sun Shines.” The ad copy refers to Pabst when it’s sunny as “a cool safe drink.” Also, at the bottom of the ad, there’s also another product being advertised: “Old Tankard Ale,” whatever that is.
Tuesday’s ad is another one for Schlitz, this one from from 1937. The image used is somewhat odd. It looks like a tavern in colonial America but drinking from ceramic German steins. The tagline, “Pleasant Memories of Olden Times,” is followed by “Schlitz in ‘Steinies'” I assume they’re trying to connect the old steins with the new steinies, which were created to compete with the popular beer cans.
Monday’s ad is for Schlitz from 1957. It was part of their Schlitzerland ad campaign, one of my absolute favorites by any brewery. I just love the artwork. And the baseball theme seemed appropriate as we just watched game 5 of the World Series. So come on, “Be a Schlitzer. Be refreshed.”
Our 90th Guinness ad is a sports-themed one with, naturally, the familiar slogan “Guinness for Strength.” The Guinness rugby player, presumably bolstered by his drinking Guinness, is running for a score wile keeping the entire opposing team at arms length — literally.
Friday’s ad is a brewery industry PSA from 1941, brought to you by the United States Brewers Foundation. After Prohibition, the beer industry was sensitive to the fact that prohibitionists sentiments did not magically melt away with the passage of the 21st Amendment and produced a number of ads portraying beer as “America’s Beverage of Moderation” and other positive associations. You’ve got to love ad copy that begins “In a hurrying, scurrying world there’s serenity in beer and ale.” Now that’s a picnic I want to go on!
Thursday’s ad is for Ballantine Ale and is — I’m guessing here — from the late 1940s-50s given that that was the time when bowling was king. The ad shows a cutaway of a bowling alley, with the bar at the right, and seemingly every person there having either a ball or a beer in their hand. You have to love a sport where drinking is not only allowed, but encouraged. And how about that lovely poem?
A cheery chatter at the Alleys tonight;
The pins are flying left and right.
The “Beer frame” next … everyone agrees,
Ballantine, waiter, over here, please!
We’ve learned long since this beer will hold
Its flavor even when when ice cold!
A-a-h! that deep-brewed flavor chill can’t kill—
Another round? Of course we will!
Wednesday’s ad is for New York City’s Knickerbocker Beer, from 1955. Showing a towering Knickerbocker above the skyscrapers, wearing colonial garb, and handing a pilsner glass of beer. I’d be afraid not to take it. And how about that slogan, “less filling … more delicious, too!” That sounds awfully similar to another slogan for a lighter beer, doesn’t it?
Tuesday’s ad is a third Schlitz ad from 1954, and it’s very similar to the last two Schlitz ads. It also uses the slogan “If you like beer you’ll love Schlitz,” though this time a really, really happy-looking man with a huge smile — most likely a grocery clerk — is holding a six-pack of Schlitz cans as if to hand them off to a waiting customer. He looks a little bit like a very young, though slightly less skinny, Frank Sinatra.
Monday’s ad is a second Schlitz ad from 1954, and it’s very similar to Friday’s Schlitz ad. It also uses the slogan “If you like beer you’ll love Schlitz,” though this time the woman hostess in the ad is dressed more casually and appears to be standing over a metal bucket filled with ice and bottles of beer.
Our 89th Guinness shows the opposite of last week’s sun beating down on a smiling pint of Guinness. In this case, it’s a full moon. The tagline is the usual “Guinness is good for you,” but the real gem is the poem:
Chuckle, chuckle, through the night,
You are such a cheerful sight
Up above the world so high,
Like a Guinness in the sky.
