Even when I was very young, I had an eye for clever ads. This one still amuses me:
I can’t be sure of when the ad appeared, but it was sometime between 1978 and 1982. I used to go to the local Tier I Junior “A” team’s games from time to time and this ad was in the program.
I can set those boundaries with confidence. It was no earlier than 1978 because the article on the back is about the league’s player of the year awards and it lists the winners from 1975 to 1978. The article may or may not have continued past the page I have. If it did, further years may have been listed. I had originally set 1986 as the latest it could have been because that’s when the ‘stubby’ beer bottle stopped being used in Canada. I was able to pull the end-date back because the local team moved to North Bay in 1982 so I couldn’t have gone to see them any later.
Doesn’t the ad lack any hint of slickness? It’s a photo and plain lettering. But the photo! Yeesh! Although I love the concept, the colour balance needs adjustment. It looks like it was shot with daylight film because fluorescent lights typically produce a blue or green cast, as you see in the ad. And come on, the image is really crooked!
Still, I like it and it brings back fond memories.
Ad copyright the Labatt Brewing Company. At least I figure it must be.
_don
I noticed the crookedness right away too! 🙂
I still remember the Calrsberg beer commercial from the 80s that was “Carlsberg” chisled in ice (or so it seemed) and someone poured beer into the sculpture. Thoughout the commercial, the beer runs through the lettering. I always thought that was cool and the typical “how’d they do that?”.
Rick
I remember that Carlsberg commercial too. At the time I remember thinking is was really neat. At to how they did it, I think I fell into the trap of imagining it was clever, but easier than it really was. I think most people are like that. To this day, when my mom sees movie effects, she says, “Well, they just put two pieces of film together,” as if you could do so with a bit of tape and be done with it!
That’s the irony. Things done exceptionally well always look so easy.