Advertising in history: Pabst Blue Ribbon Presents: The Greatest Beer Run Ever

I will confess to liking beer.

I'm not much of a fan of whiskey and the only wine I really like much is Chianti, but I rarely drink it. But, beer I like.  I don't care if it's pedestrian or not.

And, while I like best, in American beers, what are sometimes referred to as "craft beers' now, and my favorite beer, if you consider it that, is Guiness Stout, I'll also confess to liking Pabst Blue Ribbon.

PBR is in that class of beers which beer snobs snub, but that's just because they're beer snobs.  I like it.  And interestingly enough, over the past few years its undergone a revival as sort of the good, anti-craft, beer.  It has a big following, apparently, on the Pacific Coast's Northwest, which is otherwise a craft beer epicenter.  It's become sort of the working man's beer there.

So, here's to PBR and their interesting commemoration of an event during the Vietnam War.

Sharp Headgear and the Unversity Student.

From the Laramie Daily Boomerang, April 17, 1913. The height of the bowler era.

I wonder how many university students decked themselves  out with bowlers in 1913?

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Related Threads: 

Caps, Hats, Fashion and Perceptions of Decency and being Dressed.

The Casper Record for June 19, 1917. Changing standards. . . an advertisement you are unlikely to see today

How about a suit for the 4th?

Hmmm. . . . I'll bet you aren't planning on wearing a suit for the 4th, nor are you planning on buying one, are you?

It's National Doughnut Day!

Or Donut Day, if you prefer.

John A. Johnston, First Vice President of the International Association of Bridge and Structural Ironworkers Union and J.J. Keppler, International Vice President of the Machinists Union, hanging out near the doughnut truck during a 1915 strike at the Remington-UMC plant in Bridgeport, Connecticut.  Nothing improves the taste of a doughnut more than a cigar. . . .  It's odd to think that, a century ago, people were already advertising "old fashioned" doughnuts.

And shoot, I nearly missed it.

 The Allies only won the Great War as we had Donuts.

I like doughnuts, but I eat them a lot less than I used to, and I didn't eat them that often really to start with.  We used to pick them up quite a bit on the way Mass on Sundays, but we grew tired of them somehow and rarely do. Maybe once every couple of months at the most.

 Don't be giving doughnuts to the bears, darn it.

But still, a good doughnut every now and then is always welcome.

A French soldier looking a bit hesitant about donuts.  Those who watch European productions featuring depictions of Americans, such as Foyle's War will find that Americans are sort of bizarrely associated with donuts and hotdogs even though a lot of Americans aren't actually all that keen on either of them.  World War One might be responsible for that, at least in the context of donuts.  By the way, note that somebody has taken a bite out of one of those sandwiches and put it back on the tray.

And today would be a good day to have one, darn it.

Although I've already eaten this morning (not donuts) and therefore finding myself passing on the center of the day's focus.

The Casper Weekly Press for December 1, 1916: White Slavery and Boom on in Casper

While the Cheyenne papers warned of bodies burning in the streets of Chihuahua and Villa advancing to the border, as well as the ongoing horrors of World War One, the Casper Weekly Press hit the stands with tales of white slavery.

White slavery, for those who might not know (we don't hear the term much anymore) was basically the kidnapping of young women and forcing them into prostitution.

Headlines like this are easy to discount, and seem lurid, fanciful, and sensationalist, but in reality they give us a view into the hard nature of the past we'd sometimes completely forget.  White Slavery, i.e., the kidnapping of women and the forcing them into prostitution, was actually a bonafide problem, and to some extent, it remains one.

I've spoken to one now deceased woman who escaped an attempt to kidnap her on a large East Coast city when she was a teen and who was convinced that she was almost a victim of such an effort.  And it wasn't all that long ago that it was revealed there was an Hispanic white slavery ring in Jackson Wyoming, where very young Mexican teenage girls were being brought up to that Wyoming resort town as prostitutes, working in an underground economy there focused on single Mexican laborers.  That one was discovered, oddly enough, through the schools.  Still, the evil practice, fueled by money and drugs, is with us still, although with advances in technology, and just more knowledge on such things, it wasn't what it once was, thankfully.

We don't want to romanticize the past here, so we've run this, although with all the news on bodies burning in the streets, etc, we probably can't be accused of romanticism anyhow.

Meanwhile an oil boom was on in Casper causing housing shortages.

Page two of the Casper Weekly informed us that a Ford had become a necessity.  If it wasn't quite true at the time, it soon would be.

The Wyoming, a store apparently took a shot at Prohibitionist by advertising that they had "everything a Prohibitionist likes."

The Douglas Budget for November 7, 1916. Be loyal to our party.

The newspaper for the small town of Douglas simply urged voters to Republican party loyalty.  A. R. Merritt, however, of the RCU Store, didn't worry about whether you were a member of the "the Republican and Progressive Party, the Democratic Party, the Socialist Party and the Prohibition Party" (all parties that were actually fielding candidates on a serious basis), as long as you had the right party dress.

The Casper Record for November 7, 1916. All America Joins Shout "Wilson's The Man!"

The Casper Record confidently predicted that "all America" would shout for Wilson.  It also came out for Pat Sullivan, rising local politician, Irish immigrant, and very successful local sheepman.  He built a house which was, up until recently, the largest house in Casper.  Of interest, at least one of the ranching families mentioned in the article is still ranching in the same location, which is a bit comforting.

We also learn that the Midwest Hotel was about to go up, which it did.  And C. H. Townsend directed our attention to rugs.

Think Big? Nah. . . just think natural. You are fine, the way you are.

How silly can we be?

Around here there's been a series of billboard for cosmetic surgery.

Now, let me be frank, I'm not keen on cosmetic surgery.

At least not where it addresses some medical need.  People who were burned, or had surgery, or something, I get it. There trying to restore their appearance to its pre incident norm.  I'm in favor of that, and I agree that's a medical treatment.

But just because you want to meet somebody's definition of beautiful?

So the existing billboard made me uncomfortable.  But they were subtle.  You couldn't really tell what the beautiful people. . . did I say people. . . beautiful women were having done, or had done.  Okay, so I felt uncomfortable, but not icky.

Then I saw the new billboard that stated "Think Big".

Hmmm.

And on that billboard was a naked woman.

Now, she's not all visible.  She's not visible from the waste down, and the middle section of her torso is where the Think Big logo is, so we see nothing there.  But her mid drift is, and she's quite think, and her head neck and shoulders are, and she's a very good looking, and very dolled up, woman.

Think Big, means, big boobs.  The price is between $5,000 and $6,000 (I didn't catch it). And there's at least two of these billboards up.

Well, miss, don't think big. Think natural.

Your boobs are just the size their supposed to be.  Nobody needs surgery to make them any bigger.  It's unnatural and its weird.

Think natural.

Why would a person go under the metaphorical knife for this? For goodness sake, its unnecessary and its vain.

Just say no.

You are fine, just the way you are.

And that applies to your rear and your nose as well.  Just don't.

And what's that say about us? A society so wealthy, and vain, that people would undergo surgery for this? 

The Casper Record for September 5, 1916: "School has started--Have you got that uniform?"

Something we've addressed here before, but which would seem alien to many locals today. The era in which the local high school required uniforms.

For girls, anyhow.

Boys had a uniform they couldn't avoid, as we've already noted, but one which their parents, relieved of buying school clothes, were often glad to have imposed. The military uniform of JrROTC.  Girls, on the other hand, had a prescribed uniform.  What exactly it was in 1916 I'm not sure, but a basic blouse and dress is likely what was required.

In other news current residents of Natrona County would be shocked to see that the county fair was, at that time, held in late September.  Gambling with the weather?   And the tragic death of Mildred Burke, front page news in Cheyenne, had hit the Casper paper.

Questionable advice?

Beer advertisement from the year we've been featuring.

I wonder about this advice.  It seems absurd, but perhaps it really isn't.

And actually, apparently the advice had been around for awhile.  Anheuser-Busch had actually made a malt supplement for this very purpose, although it wasn't alcoholic in nature.

Did they listen to that song?

This morning, while getting ready for work, the television was on, and an advertisement which was playing Janice Joplin's "Heartbreaker" was playing.

Now, I'm a fan of Janice Joplin.*  I really like her music. Sure, she was before my time, and my parents hated her music, but I love it.  It may figure, as I'm a fan of Jimi Hendrix as well, so I have a taste for the blues and blues influenced music. 

Anyhow, as the ad was playing, I stopped to watch it.  It was a Dior perfume advertisement.

My gosh, that's weird.  Janice was one messed up woman, but I seriously doubt she'd approve of any of her music being used for perfume.  Perfume wearing is sort of basically anti-Janice.  Man.

Beyond that, the whole theme of the ad is weird, in relation to the music, which makes me wonder if anyone really ever listens to the lyrics of any song, ever.

In the ad, a bride at a wedding has a crisis, and fleas the groom, strips off her wedding dress, is lifted up into a helicopter, kisses the man therein, and flies off, presumably to a life of adventure.

In the song, an anguished singer cries out her love for a man who is mistreating her, professing her desperate undying love no matter what, in spite of the vast pain that man is causing the singer.

Boo hiss, Dior.

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*In spite of her death years ago, Janice Joplin is so familiar to our household that everyone had no problems in immediately recognizing the reference when I named a stray female cat in the neighborhood Janice. She's small, has long haired, and extremely disheveled.  She's also desperately in love with our disinterested male cat and she hangs around trying to sing screechy songs to him in a very loud voice.

Enigmatic Messages for Weary Travelers.

HIstory in Advertising: Another Dodge Brothers Commercial

The Dodge branch of Chrysler continues to pay homage to their founding siblings, this time with an acknowledgment as to their departure from Ford Motors, society shunning them, and their early deaths.  Interesting.

Advertisements in History: Sainsbury Chocolates and the 1914 Christmas Truce

Sainsbury's chocolates take on the 1914 unofficial, soldier motivated, Christmas Truce.

Advertisments In History: Official Dodge Brothers Commercial ft. the 2015 Challenger | Ballroom

Another neat Dodge commercial. This one is probably accurate in the Dodge brothers' interests, although they weren't really accepted by Detroit society, as they were regarded as crude.

Advertisments in History: Official Dodge Brothers Commercial ft. the 2015 Charger and Challenger |...

Neat advertisement. . . . but in reality the Dodge brothers died in 1920 of the dread Spanish Flu.

Washington Coffee

Another interesting World War One themed advertisement.

Advertising, 1918.

Monday, April 21, 1914. The Battle of Veracruz commences.

A force of 2,300 U.S. Marines and Sailors landed in Vera Cruz over the spat the US was engaging in over the Tampico Affair.  Fighting broke out by noon and the Battle of Veracruz was on.

The House of Representatives voted 337 to 37 in favor of the intervention.

The papers were full of speculation about a war between the US and Mexico.

And Grape Nuts was advancing the "Spring Diet".

Last prior edition:

Saturday, April 18, 1914. Being petty.

1910s, 1914, Art, California (San Fransico), Mexico, panoramic, San Francisco California, The Big Picture, U.S. Navy, United States, Vera Cruz Mexico

Bob Dylan on a Super Bowl Ad?

Now that's something I wouldn't have expected.

Not that it was bad.  Indeed, it was sort of cool. And it was Chrysler, and I like Dodges.

But still.

Best ad that I saw (and I didn't see them all) was the Chevrolet advertisement hauling the bull to the cows.