Vintage booze ads that wouldn't fly today

[Bruce Wayne]

http://www.holytaco.com/25-bizarre-vintage-alcohol-ads/

 

[Greyfox]

Thanks for the link.

 

[Atterbury Dodd]

I like the one with the monkey.

 

[scottyrocks]

Out of the 25, there were a few sexist, racist, and children-present ads, and a couple of them were just plain-stupid, but many of them, I thought, could fly today no problem, aside from their obvious age.

 

[dhermann1]

I agree with scottyrocks. Several of them are perfectly fine, as far as I'm concerned. One cool thing is the quality if the art work on some of the older ones.

 

[John in Covina]

The Johnnie Walker a seems familiar to me, I think I gave seen it before.

One brand of Scotch always comes to mind when I think of old liquor ads I'd see in the slick magazines as a kid - Vat 69!

 

[AtomicEraTom]

 

[Machine Ager]

Great one Tom

 

[John in Covina]

This speaks to the historic Prohibitionist attitudes we have in the US. In Europe children may drink wine or beer with family meals. I think it comes from a time where the water in most places was not healthy so beer and wine were drank instead by everyone at every age.

 

[Talbot]

The guy in #12 makes me want to check my pockets.

 

[Mark D]

Wait a minute...the one about "How mother and baby picked up." What's wrong with that? When my 12 year-old daughter was born my wife's doctor told her to have a beer while she was nursing. It's somehow is supposed to help with lactation.

 

[AtomicEraTom]

Thank you, my Dad and I are brewery collectors and this has been in my parents house for years!

Great one Tom

 

[Widebrim]

Many of them would be okay for today, I think. Did you see that solid blazer on Liberace? Blatz Beer...

 

[scottyrocks]

This speaks to the historic Prohibitionist attitudes we have in the US. In Europe children may drink wine or beer with family meals. I think it comes from a time where the water in most places was not healthy so beer and wine were drank instead by everyone at every age.

Beer, or rather mead, was a nutritional staple hundreds of years ago. Mead was not beer, but when flavored with hops, could taste somewhat like beer. Anyway, the point is, fermented alcoholic beverages, because they were often made with grains, were sustenance for many people, and yes, kids, ages ago.

 

[Undertow]

Great pics, thanks for the link!

 

[Tomasso]

Out of the 25, there were a few sexist, racist, and children-present ads

Could you point out the ads you feel are racist and sexist. I think I might see one of the latter but I can't see the former.

 

[Widebrim]

Could you point out the ads you feel are racist and sexist. I think I might see one of the latter but I can't see the former.

Some might point to the Rhum Negrita ad, Tomasso, but it's a matter of subjectivity. That particular ad is probably historically accurate for its time, and likely not racist in tone. As to the term, "Negrita," it is still used in Spanish-speaking countries (with which Jamaica has business/tourist ties) as a "cariño," or affectionate term used with family members and good friends.

 

[Fly Boy]

I didn't know Bulmers counted towards your 5 a day - I'll take 5!!

 

[scottyrocks]

Could you point out the ads you feel are racist and sexist. I think I might see one of the latter but I can't see the former.

To me, sexist is anything that makes one particular sex, in this case, women, look weak, foolish, or just displays them for the sake of displaying them. With that said, the sexist ads include:

Schlitz
Colt 45
Budweiser - although not exactly sexist, they do have that woman's mouth and lips made up and placed juuust right, iykwim.

The racist ads are not really racist in the times they were originally published, but I would bet that the ACLU would have field day with these if published today:

Guinness
Rhum Negrita

And the Blatz beer ad with the mother and baby is just plain wrong.

 

[LizzieMaine]

The ACLU doesn't have any interest in policing the use of questionable imagery in liquor ads (I say this as a card-carrying member thereof.)

Personally, I find the sexism in these ads far more innocuous than the sexism in beer advertising today. I can't stand to watch football on television because of the sheer vicious misogyny in many of the ads.

As for the Blatz ad, believe it or not, beer was strongly recommended for nursing mothers in the first couple of decades of the twentieth century -- it basically filled the role of a B vitamin supplement before vitamin supplements existed.