Pfeiffer's Beer Ads – Sept. 1956

Beer seems to be a recurring topic on this blog – and I hardly ever drink it. I've devoted many posts to Old Dutch, Hamm's, Carling's Black Label, Buckeye Beer and some regional favorites. 

I guess it's because beer ads (and hard liquor ads as well) appeared in the Lorain Journal just about every day in the 1950s. While they were usually in the vicinity of the sports pages, they could show up just about anywhere in the paper.

I thought I was familiar with most beer brands by now, but here's one that was new to me: Pfeiffer's. I had seen little statues of Johnny Fifer, the beer's mascot in antique shops over the last thirty years. But I never paid attention to the brand he was promoting. By the way he's dressed, I thought he represented some imported European beer; actually, he's supposed to be a Revolutionary War fifer.

Pfeiffer's was a Detroit, Michigan-based brewery dating back to the late 1800s, when it was founded by a German immigrant. By the 1950s it had become a top-selling brand in the Midwest. And for a while in the mid-1950s, Pfeiffer's placed a lot of ads in the Lorain Journal. 

Here's one that appeared on September 21, 1956.

It appears that the real marketing push had occurred the previous year, beginning in the spring, when a large ad ran about once a week. This ad seems like it was introducing Pfeiffer's to the Lorain area.

April 8, 1955

Several ads appeared in the weeks that followed.

May 6, 1955

May 13, 1955

A year later, the brand had apparently been around long enough for some of the ads to say that it was "Now.. better than ever!"

June 1, 1956

Aug. 24, 1956

Several times I've written about a long-gone regional beer that was ''revived" in name only, with none of the brand's equity (including its distinctive logo, label design, etc.). Examples of this include Buckeye Beer and Burger Beer.

Happily, that's not the case with Pfeiffer's.

Today, Pfeiffer's is still around. It's in extremely limited distribution but with its charming logo and packaging design virtually intact.

Click here to visit the Pfeiffer's website. It's extremely well done, and the love and affection for the brand is quite apparent. The website does an excellent job of telling the beer's story in an exciting, graphic way. 

Now if only someone could do that for Old Dutch.

Anyway, Johnny Fifer plays on, in 2026.