Jay has posted a good post. A very good post this week about a series of ads placed in post-WWII American magazines by the United States Brewers Foundation from 1945-1946. On first glance they are cheery and positive, warm and inviting, family friendly. The kind of thing that rarely gets trotted out these days. He has set up an entire library of the ads as a service to us all.
The thing is this. I find them very weird ads. I ask myself about the ergonomics of the scenes, the stories being acted out, even the relationships of the people involved... and I find them weird. It could be that they are so utterly laced with Americana
of over 60 years ago that they are beyond my reckoning. But they somehow seem like taking a classic Canadiana art of Cornelius_Krieghoff or Emily Carr and stick a 1950s flying saucer in the background. Think that's silly? It's been done.
No, it's weird. Look at the detail in ad #19 to the left. Click for a bigger view. What is that wire the guy in the brown suit is pulling at? And look up top at a bit of #42. Why is the man on the child's blue stool? Were people actually comfortable in such postures? Why is more beer being brought to the group when their glasses are full? Is this how people pounded back the beer in Norman Rockwell's sort of idea life circa 1946?
Comments
Reign - October 11, 2009 7:38 AM
I wonder why everyone is drinking from a glass? I know it is the proper way to drink beer, but outside most of us drink from the bottle. I have pictures of my parents from 1953 outside of their cottage and everyone is drinking from a glass. I like the ads. Reminds me of my parents get to-gethers 50 years ago.
Patrick Hirlehey - October 14, 2009 2:40 PM
I think the wire in ad #19 looks like a camera strap, he's the guy who's going to take embarassing pictures of everyone and post it on Facebook. The blue chair, I can't explain.
Yeti - October 17, 2009 10:43 AM
I love these ads. They're manipulative and pandering, but still somehow charming. They remind me of my mom's box of old family photos. I guess the point of the campaign was to make beer an accepted part of postwar America -- prohibition was a fairly recent memory then. About the blue chair: Lawn furniture was probably pretty rare back then, so a kid's chair would be better than the ground. The only other seat in the picture is a packing crate.
Lew Bryson - October 27, 2009 6:35 PM
I agree, that looked like a camera strap to me. And the stuff they're sitting on just looks like crap furniture they pulled out of the garage. What I don't get is the clothes they're wearing just to sit around watching some guy paint "Mamie" on his boat. Lazy gits.