Buckeye Beer Ads – January 1954

This vintage bottle is currently on eBay

Buckeye Beer, the Toledo-based brew that dates back to 1836, has been the subject of a few blog posts as the brand was featured occasionally in advertisements in the Lorain Journal in the 1950s and early 1960s. The ad campaigns I saw were quite creative and made good use of illustration.

This clever series of Buckeye Beer ads (below) ran in the Lorain Journal during January 1954. Although only six ads are shown, amazingly, the ad campaign featured a different one each day of the month. They always appeared in the Sports section on a left hand page, and always in the lower right corner. Each ad depicted a frustrated man – in trouble with his wife, performing an unpleasant duty, engaged in an annoying sports situation – who needs to 'buck up' with a Buckeye Beer. 

Most of the ads in the campaign were drawn by cartoonist Walt Ditzen, who enjoyed a fine career with his nationally syndicated 'Fan Fare' sports strip. Ditzen had a great, funny style. Of the ads shown above, he did all but the one of the man losing at checkers to a little kid.