Friday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from, believe it or not 2011. It was an entry to a t-short contest, and was eventually offered as an iron-on. But it certainly looks older, and captures the spirit of Pabst’s earlier advertising nicely.
Wednesday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1952. Part of Pabst’s long-running “What’ll You Have” series with the tagline spelled out on a checkers board. But at the bottom there’s a more interesting tagline. “Satisfy Your Thirst For Better Beer!”
Thursday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from who knows when. Not a clue when this was created, or how it was used — was it a poster, a more artistic ad or not created by Pabst at all? Not a clue, but it’s too cool to ignore despite known almost nothing about it.
Tuesday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1913. Showing a woman almost completely covered by a head scarf, and wearing what looks to be a raincoat or overcoat, the tagline “Only When It’s Pabst” seems inscrutable. What does that even mean? She’s also wearing leather gloves holding her glass of beer. My guess is that it was meant to represent a driving outfit for one of those new fangled horseless carriages.
Sunday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1950. Featuring actor William Bendix, who did mostly character roles but also played the Babe in The Babe Ruth Story, it shows him relaxing in his den, pipe in one hand and a mug of beer in the other. Pabst must have been a sponsor of his radio show at the time, “The Life of Riley.” Bendix tended to play everyday guys, blue collar toughs with street smarts, masculine men, so that may be what Pabst was trying to associate themselves with, especially in that setting with its leather chair, and other manly accouterments.
Tuesday’s ad is another one for Pabst, this one from 1939. The ads shows six fancy settings where the rich and famous enjoy their beer. This also looks as if the individual photos were used in individual ads at one time, and this one just used them all together. I love the tagline that used a couple of times here: “For Keener Refreshment ….” That’s certainly what I want in my beer, for it to be more keen than the other beer.
Monday’s ad is for Pabst, from between 1900 and 1910. It looks like it’s probably two ads, or more likely two advertising postcards, though they definitely seem related and work as a pair. On the right, a woman is presumably ordering beer, and on the left a young man — sporting a dandy pink tie and a shirt with puffy sleeves — is taking her order. The boxes behind him suggest six different Pabst products: Hofbrau, Export Beer, Select, Bavarian, Bohemian and The Best Tonic.
Sunday’s ad is for Pabst Blue Ribbon, from 1933. It’s a simple post-prohibition ad showing an older, respectable-looking man pouring himself a beer. He doesn’t immediately seem like the sort of person who smiles a lot, but pouring his Pabst, he does seem happy.
Thursday’s ad is another one for Pabst, from 1897. The Invalid in the title refers to those not drinking Pabst, with its “tonic” qualities where “it lifts, strengthens, builds, is vivifying, life-giving, gives vim and bounce — it braces.”
Wednesday’s ad is for Pabst, from 1951. Apparently playing bridge with another couple used to be huge, but it didn’t reach my generation. My parents occasionally had people over to play Pinochle, but never bridge as far as I know. So I don’t even know if that’s a good hand.
