Wednesday’s ad is for Schlitz, most likely from the 1950s. I assume there was likely text with this ad, but I have only the art. But I like it this way, nice and simple. Cool art featuring three people enjoying the outdoors, with two cans of Schlitz in view and the logo hanging in the sky.
Tuesday’s ad is for Budweiser, from around the mid-1950s and features a beach scene at night, with a lighthouse in the background. Five couples are around a fire on the beach, or are on their way to it. An aluminum cooler in the foreground holds cans of Bud and the whole scene has the slogan “Treat Yourself A Little Better!”
Monday’s ad is for Blatz, and is a toast from 1952. I love the positioning of the man and woman toasting one another above the Blatz triangle. Below that is the slogan “Milwaukee’s Finest Beer.” Nice and understated.
Continuing my unintentional theme of dead animals and beer, here’s an odd one from the archives of Minnesota news, as highlighted in Yesterday’s News, 140 Years of Minnesota News by Ben Welter. Although reported in the Minneapolis Tribune in 1900, July 19 to be exact, the incident actually occurred in Iowa. The report assures us, however, that it was near the Minnesota border. Since it’s archival, here’s the original news report in its entirety:
DEATH LURKS IN THE BEER
Three Men Die in Agony After Drinking Lager.
By Wire From Fort Dodge, Ia., July 19.
Four young men living in Cerro Gordo county, near the Minnesota line, purchased and drank a keg of Eastern-brewed beer some days ago, and as a result three of them have died and the fourth is now in terrible agony, and is reported to be on the point of death.
The day was warm and the beer was consumed hurriedly by the friends, who little realized that they were sipping a death-dealing draught. They were all taken sick immediately, and although a physician was soon summoned, the taking off of three of the young bibbers could not be prevented.
To ascertain, if possible, the strange cause of the sickness, the keg was broken into and the decomposed remains of a genuine rattlesnake was found. Improbable as the story sounds, it is true; and is rendered plausible by the fact that empty kegs are often left lying around for weeks before being shipped back to the breweries. It is thus easy for reptiles and insects to crawl into the kegs as cool resorts.
The scalding out of the kegs upon their return to the brewery would naturally kill any living organism, which would remain right in the keg. It was only a few years ago that a man here became sick from drinking keg beer and an investigation showed that a dead toad occupied the keg with the beer.
I’m certainly glad sanitation standards in breweries have improved markedly over the last 110 years.
This mug, believe it or not, is available for purchase at What on Earth.
Our 28th Guinness poster by John Gilroy is part of the zoo animal series and features a elephant trying to take the zookeeper’s Guinness with the slogan “My Goodness — My Guinness.”
Friday’s ad is from 1963 and is for Hamm’s in the Land of Sky Blue Waters. The text is a wonderfully nonsensical mishmash of adspeak, beginning with “Refreshingly yours!,” whatever that means, followed by “Taste the secret Hamm’s has captured from nature’s purest waters.” Ooh, what could it be, what could it be? The answer, of course, is “BIG FRESH TASTE.” What great meaningless platitudes. And check out the head on that beer. Does that look like a comb over to anyone else?
Thursday’s ad is from 1951 and is for Goebel Beer, a brewery in Detroit, Michigan from 1873 to 1964. Through the mergermania of the latter half of the 20th century it ended up being owned by Stroh’s. They did a series of ads featuring beautiful landscapes with a glass of Goebel’s in the foreground. My favorite part of the text is “Goebel Beer — It’s Mello-ized.”
Wednesday’s ad is from the 1960 and is for Schlitz, featuring the slogan “Know the real joy good living … move up to Schlitz!” Some of the good living go-togethers include pretzels, popcorn, crackers and burgers.
Tuesday’s ad is from the 1950s and is for Schlitz, featuring a beautiful natural vista with a man holding up a glass of beer against it as backdrop. And the slogan, “Move up to quality — move up to Schlitz,” is kind of a hoot. But I certainly want to be in that spot with a beer, if indeed it’s even a real place.
Monday’s ad is from 1959 and is for a brewery I’d not heard of before, Hampden Brewery of Willimansett, Massachusetts. The guy at the sparse desk is Karl H. Bissell, Sr., chairman of the board for the brewery, though at that time it was known as Hampden-Harvard Brewing. Eventually Piels bought it but the brewery was shut down in 1975. Curiously, it’s been restarted as a craft brewery earlier this year as Hampden Brewing Co.
Frankly, Bissell looks more like James Carville and I’m not quite sure how this guy with his cueball noggin sitting behind a big, empty desk was meant to inspire brand loyalty or switching brands. And the slogan “New England’s Finest Beer At New England’s Fairest Price” is not exactly Shakespeare, either.
They appear to have brewed ales and lagers.
