Thursday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1957. Given we’re in the middle of the all-star break, I figured a “7th Inning Schlitzerstretch” might be in order. It’s subtitled “How Cheering Raises A Schlitzthirst.” I confess I love the Schlitzerland ad campaign, especially the illustrations. “Be a Schlitzer.” Wouldn’t you like to be a Schlitzer, too?
Saturday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1904. It’s an unthinkable ad in today’s world, where health claims are strictly forbidden in beer advertising, even if they’re true. In a fictional, or hypothetical at best, conversation between a doctor and his patient, the physician unequivocally endorses Schlitz beer because it’s so pure. How does he know? Because he’s seen it being brewed, which of course makes no sense. But my favorite advice the doc gives is about why pure beer is good for you. “The hops form a tonic; the barley a food. The trifle of alcohol os an aid to digestion. And the custom of drinking beer supplies the body with fluid to wash out the waste. People who don’t drink beer seldom drink enough fluid of any kind. A great deal of ill-health is caused by the lack of it.” And no, it doesn’t cause biliousness, which is a “term used in the 18th and 19th centuries pertaining to bad digestion, stomach pains, constipation, and excessive flatulence.” Whew, dodged a bullet there.
Monday’s ad is Schlitz, from 1946. This ad is from Schlitz’s long-running “Just the kiss of the hops …” campaign. Even though it’s an illustration, I love the idea of the hop cone seen through the glass of beer. I’ll have to try that as a photograph this harvest time.
Wednesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1938. It’s a very text heavy ad, with a long story about how making a show on Broadway a hit is like goof beer. Yeah, I don’t get it either.
Monday’s ad is for Schlitz, from the 1930s. Touting their new smaller steinie brown bottles, flanked by an actual stein on either side, I love that the neck label reads “Bottled at the Brewery.” Is that really a selling point customers would care about? Were other breweries bottling their beer elsewhere?
Wednesday’s ad is another ad for Schlitz, from 1953. In this Schlitz ad, a couple on the beach is having a picnic, with a few beers, of course. The lad is painting the name “Joy” on the boat, which given that the lass has a “J” monogram on her blouse, must be for her. But every time I see the name “Joy,” I can’t help but think of the old Harry Nilsson song Joy, which is a wonderfully weird song I’ve always loved, but then I’m a huge Nilsson fan.
Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1949. It’s one of Schlitz’s long-running three-panel series, with Romeo inexplicably up in the balcony, looking down on a tray of beer and his beloved Juliet making time with someone holding a script. So he went down to investigate, er, try some beer.
Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from some time in the 1960s, and it’s a nice double meaning showing a bottle of Schlitz on a psychiatrist’s couch having its head examined, but of course the head they’re really referring to is the beer’s head.
Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1975. The ad shows a baseball glove catching a cold (or at least wet) can of Schlitz. I sure hope after catching it, they don’t open it right away, of they’ll get a face full of beer and foam.
Tuesday’s ad is for Schlitz, from 1942. Schlitz used that bear in a number of their ads from around that time period. This one is apparently a graduate (of what I don’t know) and possibly majored in geography, as he’s using a pointer to show us the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin on a globe. After all, Schlitz was “The Beer That Made Milwaukee Famous.”
