Fire-Brewed Flavor

Stroh's Beer ad, outside Chicago, 2007.

I can't remember where exactly I took this. I know I was driving on the South side of Chicago for a work-related task, but that's all I remember. Usually I cement ads like this in my memory, but not this one. I think it's the only Stroh's ad I've ever seen, no less one painted on the side of a building. I wish I'd had a better camera for this -- I used the digital point & shoot I was using at the time. I really like the look of the bricks; something about the phrase "fire-brewed" just seems right on bricks. Although I can't say that I prefer beer with a fire-brewed flavor...I wonder how long this ad campaign went on.

How awesome is this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yt1FKDGLAc4

One of my hobbies has become taking pictures of barns and buildings with ads painted on them. It began in Wisconsin, where Miller High Life silos and barnsides appear along the old State Highways, also old U.S. Highways (think Route 66). These are sometimes the best highways for scenery and old downtowns, diners, and old-school billboards like these. In Jerry Apps' book Barns of Wisconsin, I once read that beer companies would strike a deal with a farmer to paint the entire barn, or at least supply the paint, in exchange for allowing the adspace on the barn. I like the charm of such an arrangement; this seems so American to me.