Our 40th Guinness poster by John Gilroy shows a man lifting up a manhole cover — and also lifting the steamroller resting on the cover — in order to rescue his pint of Guinness. Naturally, the tagline is “Guinness for strength.”
Beer In Ads #222: Bob Uecker, Mr. Baseball
Friday’s ad is the fourth baseball-themed one, which I’ll be continuing through the World Series. The ad is from 1982 and features baseball personality Bob Uecker, who Johnny Carson dubbed “Mr. Baseball.” This was one his earliest ads for Miller Lite, when they started trying to convince men to drink a low-calorie beer. It features Uecker’s signature self-deprecating humor with the line “Great ballplayers drink Lite beer because it’s less filling. I know. I asked one.”
Beer In Ads #221: Rheingold, Kathy & Casey At The Bat
Thursday’s ad is the third baseball-themed one, which I’ll be continuing through the World Series. The ad is from 1962 and features baseball legend Casey Stengel, when he was managing the New York Mets. The woman in the ad is Miss Rheingold for 1962, Kathy Kersh.
Beer In Ads #220: The Goodness of Malt (& Baseball)
Wednesday’s ad is the second baseball-themed one, which I’ll be continuing through the World Series. The ad is from 1958 and is by the now defunct trade organization for brewer’s malt, the Barley and Malt Institute. It features a number of men enjoying both beer and baseball. The text is great, too. “The goodness of Malt yours when you say , “Let’s make it beer.” It looks like beer at the ballpark in 1958 may have been $1. The man in the foreground is holding two beers, and the hand on the right appears to have just accepted two dollar bills. That, or it’s even cheaper and he just bought a round for the row.
Beer In Ads #219: Score Big With Hamm’s
Tuesday’s ad is the first baseball-themed one, which will continue through the World Series. It’s for Hamm’s Beer, and is a newer ad, at least from the period of time when Pabst owned the brand, before selling it to Miller — 1983-99. But it’s a great use of the Hamm’s Bear playing baseball.
Beer In Ads #218: Why Is This Fabacher Smiling?
Monday’s ad is for a failed brand from the Jackson Brewery in New Orleans, Louisiana — better known as Jax Brewery. In what I believe began in the late 1960s, Jax launched a brand called Fabacher and had ads with a fake “Andrew Fabacher” who supposedly looked like Andrew Jackson, which is who the brewery had been named for. The brewery was founded in 1890 by Alsatian German immigrant Lawrence Fabacher. It stayed in business during Prohibition by making root beer, other soft drinks and near beer. “By the late 1930s it was sold in all of Louisiana, and parts of Texas, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi and Alabama.” In 1964, they renovated the brewery and became the “10th largest single-plant brewery in the country, brewing nearly 450,000 barrels of beer annually, [also] making it the largest independent brewery in the South” at that time. The beer ultimately failed and the brewery closed in the mid-1970s. The brewery location is today a shopping mall.
Guinness Ad #39: Flying In Formation
Our 39th Guinness poster by John Gilroy was undoubtedly done around the time of World War 2. It depicts a group of four Toucans flying in formation at an RAF airfield while a pair of mustachioed officers look on in surprise. They’re probably surprised because each Toucan is balancing two pint of Guinness on each of their beaks. The tagline is “Lovely day for a Guinness.”
Beer In Ads #217: Schlitz Sends In The Clown
Friday’s ad is for Schlitz from 1965 and features an ugly clown, although I pretty much hate all clowns so I find them all scary and a not a bit funny. Sad, really. And this one’s no different, with the text “What makes the clown smile? Schlitz. Greatest beer on Earth.” The ad also mentioned an upcoming circus parade later that year in Milwaukee, on July 5.
Beer In Ads #216: Molson Beach Drawing
Thursday’s ad is for the Canadian beer Molson and is from 1985. It depicts an idyllic beach scene and features a bottle of Molson beer drawn into the sand between two beach blankets. The woman from the blue towel has walked over to the man on the yellow towel, saying. “Well, now that you’ve drawn my attention ….” At the bottom is the tagline, “Molson Makes It Golden.”
Beer In Ads #215: Meister Brau Lite
Wednesday’s ad is for one of the first low-calorie light beers from 1969. Notice the spelling of “Lite” for Meister Brau Lite. That’s significant because Miller bought the brand in part to create Miller Lite, which they later introduced in 1973 I love that Mesiter Brau is trying to link their low-calorie beer to sex from the get go, where refer to it as “Lite … a lusty, full strength premium beer with 1/3 less calories.”
