Well, seventy years ago this month, Carling rolled out a major marketing Schlitz, er blitz for Black Label Beer. Its popular "Hey Mabel – Black Label" campaign (featuring the lovely Jeanne Goodspeed as Mabel the waitress) was pushing sales of the beer to new heights. Consequently, a series of newspaper ads appeared in the pages of the Lorain Journal during November and December 1955 as part of the campaign.
Here are a few of them. All of them play up the catchy and fun "Hey Mabel" tagline.
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| Nov. 17, 1955 |
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| Dec. 1, 1955 |
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| Dec. 8, 1955 |
The charming Mabel campaign – which worked well on radio but even better on TV – no doubt attracted new customers. But the taste and price must have been just right for sales to explode.
Of course these days tastes have changed. I always chuckle at how the arrival of Great Lakes Christmas Ale is a big event, with lines of people waiting. To each his own, I guess.
As for me, I'll stick with Mabel and the Hamms Bear.
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| In my fridge right now, purchased at the Brownhelm Store |
Hey Dan - I can remember their bottling plant off 21st On the west side. It was my uncle’s choice along with Duquesne (Duke). We were a Stroh’s family. Interesting how they marketed back then pushing sales numbers to get us to buy their product. Hamm’s bear has to be one of the best beer commercials along with Charleston Heston’s bud light “real men of genius “ and Bob Ueker’s “front row “ Todd
ReplyDeleteWe weren't a big beer family, preferring the hard stuff for its efficiency ("fewer calories, less work"). On the rare occasions brew was bought it was usually Genesee in dark green, 8 oz. "pony bottles." That way there was no chance of it getting too warm.
ReplyDeleteMom always had a case or 2 in the basement, didn't want to run out around the holidays.
ReplyDeleteApropos of the season, let me mention that Carling had some classic Christmas ads. This one is a favorite:
ReplyDeletehttps://vintage-ads.livejournal.com/9906811.html