Thursday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1909. In this ad, a fat man is walking while swigging a bottle of Miller High Life. The tagline is “How Ish Dot For High Life Beer,” which seems to suggest he’s a German-American, especially with his outfit. Plus, this would have been before anti-German sentiment arose during World War I, so it would not yet have been a problem to portray. Or perhaps he’s simply drunk, and that how they think drunk people talk? But there’s no way an advertiser would show such an overweight person consuming their product for fear of people connecting the two. Especially not fat and drunk.

Wenesday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from around 1910. In this ad, it’s a gusher, with a ginormous bottle of Miller High Life providing a fountain of beer. Some people are swimming in it, and others are bringing buckets to fill with the beer. It looks like a popular spot. The artwork is a stylized cartoon, similar to some popular comic strips from that time period.

Tuesday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1960. In this ad, one of a series featuring a nearly black and white ad, with only the beer in color, and the same man engaged in various activities. This time, he’s playing pool, excuse me, billiards, while wearing a tuxedo. He’s eyeing his next shot, and holding a beer in his hand. This is the last one of this series of ads I was able to find. There may be others, but these are the only ones I found. I also discovered that they were all created by an Australian illustrator named John McCormick at Kling Studios in Chicago. McCormick created the ads using a technique known as scratchboard, which is “both a medium, and an illustrative technique using sharp knives and tools for etching into a thin layer of white China clay that is coated with black India ink.” Uncle Ron was an intern at the studio in 1954 and met McCormick while he was there, and tells the story in his Uncle Ron’s Blog. Unfortunately it’s the only information I could find at all about McCormick’s amazing art.

And while I couldn’t find an image of the entire ad larger then the one above, I did find a larger detail of part of the ad centering on the man in black.

Monday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1960. In this ad, one of a series featuring a nearly black and white ad, with only the beer in color, and the same man engaged in various activities. This time, his activity seems a lot more passive, as he’s sitting on the floor in his smoking jacket, beer in hand of course, listening to his newfangled Hi-Fi stereo. He’s even left one of the records lying directly on the carpet, which is never a good idea. That’s how you get scratches.

And here’s another version with a little more definition and color, but it’s a lot smaller.

Sunday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1960. In this ad, one of a series featuring a nearly black and white ad, with only the beer in color, and the same man engaged in various activities. This time, he’s leaning against his Bentley, because what other kind of car would the man in black drive? I considered calling this the Man in Black Races, but really, he’s just leaning up against the car, and there’s a picnic basket on the ground by his feet. But then again the Man in Black Picnics didn’t sound too good either. Of course, there are other older, collectible cars behind his, so maybe he’s just attending a car show. They may have been starting to run out of ideas for this series.

Saturday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1960. In this ad, one of a series featuring a nearly black and white ad, with only the beer in color, and the same man engaged in various activities. This time, he’s at the bowling alley. While I’m sure he’ll roll his ball down the lane at some point, right now he’s sitting down and scoring another bowler, with a beer in his hand, of course. Unfortunately, the only versions of this ad I could find were from black and white publications, so the signature feature — that only the beer is in color, making it stand out — so these don’t pop like the others. Best I can tell, they’re maybe in the third frame, and already he’s hitting the sauce, which is awesome, and just how it should be.

Friday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1961. In this ad, one of a series featuring a nearly black and white ad, with only the beer in color, and the same man engaged in various activities. This time, he’s the captain of his own sailboat. He’s sitting at the helm, captain’s hat tossed aside, beer in hand. He’s going place.

Thursday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1957. In this ad, one of a series featuring a nearly black and white ad, with only the beer in color, and the same man engaged in various activities. This time, he’s studying his next move in a chess match, beer in hand (presumably to help him think) and finger below his lip (also to help him think). I do love that tuxedo, though, I think I”m going to put mine on the next time I play chess. ANd drink a beer, of course.

Wednesday’s ad is for Miller High Life, from 1959. In this ad, one of a series featuring a nearly black and white ad, with only the beer in color, and the same man engaged in various activities. This time, he’s sitting on his lounge chair in his den, with a beer in one hand and petting his faithful dog with the other. There are four rifles sitting in an open, unlocked cabinet (what could go wrong?) but it’s hard to say if he’s just returned from the outdoors, or he hasn’t left. He’s wearing his trousers tucked into military-style boots, but then he’s also wearing a sweater vest. So it’s anybody’s guess.