Beer Ads in Oshkosh No. 17: Drink Oshkosh Beer Morning, Noon & Night

Click to enlarge

Here’s a doozy of an ad that’s 100 years old this week. It appeared in the Oshkosh Daily Northwestern on the Wednesday evening of September 24, 1913 and bears the happy advice that Oshkoshers ought to drink beer morning, noon and night. Check this out:

In the 

MORNING

A glass of Oshkosh beer will refreshen you after the night's sleep, invigorate you and fit you for the day's work.

At

NOON

A glass of Oshkosh beer with the dinner or lunch, "tops It off" just right and helps the stomach to digest the solid foods.

At

NIGHT

A bottle of Oshkosh beer will be appreciated, especially if body or brain is fatigued. It is nourishing and strengthening and soothes the nerves.

We can Serve You.

In 1913, the American Prohibition movement was on the rise. The Anti-Saloon League, the leading Prohibitionist group of the era, had changed their tact. Instead of fighting for dry laws on a state-by-state basis, they were now agitating and gaining support for a Constitutional Amendment to ban the production and sale of alcohol nationally. They achieved their goal six years later with little obstruction from the nation’s brewers whose limpid response is mirrored in ads such as this one.

Instead of defending their human right to make beer, brewers began pretending that what they were really producing was some kind of misunderstood health drink. Hence the advice to take an invigorating guzzle of it as soon as you crawl out of bed in the morning. Well I can think of worse ways to start the day. The consequences may not be as advertised, but it’s bound to be more fun than orange juice.