Old Log Cabin Whiskey Ads – Sept. & Oct. 1953

Regular readers of this blog know that Old Log Cabin Whiskey ads that appeared in the Lorain Journal in the 1950s are interesting to me. 

Why? Maybe the brand appeals to me because of my secret wish to live in a log cabin. Or perhaps I just played with Lincoln Logs too much as a kid.

On earlier posts, I featured several ads from an early 1950s campaign with the theme, "There's Bourbon Enjoyment Inside!" Each ad consisted of a picturesque log cabin in the background, with someone pointing at it. The ones doing the pointing included a hunter cradling a rifle, a pipe-smoking rustic type with a Stormy Kromer-style cap; a flannel-clad chap with an armful of wood, and even a friendly squirrel.

Eventually that series of ads ran their course, and it was time for a new approach. But rather than focusing on the log cabin (and the alcoholic pleasures within), this new campaign staggered off in a different direction. 

Here's the result – an ad that ran in the Journal on Sept. 18, 1953. It featured a frontiersman practicing the pioneer equivalent of drinking while driving, and a vocabulary lesson.

A similar ad appeared in the Journal a few weeks later on October 2, 1953. This time the frontiersman is referred to in the ad as a '49er.

I'm sorry, but I'm not buying the coonskin-cap-wearing character as a California gold miner – his attire is all wrong. I'm not convinced he would be using such high-falutin' words either.

I'm just not a fan of these ads, which lack the charm of the previous campaign.

But you gotta admit, they were ahead of their time. They appeared a full year before the Davy Crockett fad began with the airing of the five-part series about the famous frontiersman on Walt Disney's Disneyland series in December 1954.

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UPDATE (October 12, 2023)

Here's another ad from the campaign. It ran in the Journal on October 30, 1953. 

I just Googled 'bunkumsquint.' Yep, it's a real word!