Mothers need beer!
This ad for Blatz beer has been circulating around the internet for some time. Often people who post these vintage ads never provide a source for them, so it's hard to know if they're real or fake. But in the case of this Blatz ad, I know it's real because I found the following discussion of it in the Church School Journal, 1917. Apparently it was controversial even in the early 20th century:
The whiskey men well know the value of childhood for the formation of permanent habits. Dr. C.T. Wilson says that the advertising of the liquor people has these aims: to secure the use of liquor in homes; to encourage drinking by women; to promote drinking by children; and to put the appetite for drink into unborn children by inducing expectant mothers to drink beer. He showed to a congressional committee an advertisement which read: "How mother and baby picked up: A case of good beer in your home means much to the young mother, and obviously baby partakes in the benefits"; also an advertisement recommending whiskey for delicate undeveloped children; also the picture of a nursing bottle filled with whiskey and taken from a small boy; also a picture of sixteen different hollow toys taken from school children. These hollow toys were all filled with sweet wine or whiskey, and had been given out by drink dealers.
Comments
Beer is, was, and will always be an almost perfect food! Nursing mothers, back when I was growing up, were encouraged to "have a beer or two" to help with lactation.
This crap about expectant mothers abstaining from all alcohol is a crock of do-do. Pregnant women have been downing beer and wine for almost 7,000 years and the population is still doing just fine. In fact, it's doing so good that scientists have recently discovered that Earth's orbit is slowly settling to solar south and if we don't get this population explosion under control soon we may even drop out of orbit altogether!
This crap about expectant mothers abstaining from all alcohol is a crock of do-do. Pregnant women have been downing beer and wine for almost 7,000 years and the population is still doing just fine. In fact, it's doing so good that scientists have recently discovered that Earth's orbit is slowly settling to solar south and if we don't get this population explosion under control soon we may even drop out of orbit altogether!
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 03/07/13 at 10:55 AM
Prohibitionists never learn the lessons.
How much money and resources has the "War On Drugs" consumed?
Black markets thrive and crime increases when prohibitions are in place.
Without Prohibition in the United States, Joe Kennedy would have remained just some Irish day laborer and we wouldn't have had his progeny running around like satyrs on the White House lawn.
How much money and resources has the "War On Drugs" consumed?
Black markets thrive and crime increases when prohibitions are in place.
Without Prohibition in the United States, Joe Kennedy would have remained just some Irish day laborer and we wouldn't have had his progeny running around like satyrs on the White House lawn.
Posted by KDP on 03/07/13 at 12:48 PM
We should declare a war on all the "War on _______" .. fill in the blank
Posted by BrokeDad in Midwest US on 03/07/13 at 04:07 PM
Everything in moderation, nothing to excess.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 03/07/13 at 07:57 PM
Expat, I hope you're joking, but fetal alcohol syndrome isn't a joking matter. Read The Broken Cord by Michael Dorris.
Posted by ges on 03/07/13 at 09:26 PM
Laudanum was much better at calming a baby that had colic.
Posted by BMN on 03/07/13 at 09:46 PM
@Ges: Almost every kid that grew up in my home town was born to a mother that was consuming alcohol during her pregnancy and afterwords too. There's a large gap between having a beer or two and drinking to the levels you're eluding to.
This "all or nothing", "zero tolerance" mind set that has permeated American society of late is, in a wood, stupid! It only serves to further dumb down the population and force them into a single, easily controlled mold.
Turn your worries, Ges, to the over population problem I'd hate the Earth to fall out of the Solar plane and go drifting off to become a frozen waste.
This "all or nothing", "zero tolerance" mind set that has permeated American society of late is, in a wood, stupid! It only serves to further dumb down the population and force them into a single, easily controlled mold.
Turn your worries, Ges, to the over population problem I'd hate the Earth to fall out of the Solar plane and go drifting off to become a frozen waste.
Posted by Expat47 in Athens, Greece on 03/08/13 at 01:04 AM
My mom had terrible morning sickness when she was pregnant with my older brother. She was skinny to begin with and needed to keep something down. The doctor advised her to drink some beer before eating a small meal. She didn't like beer but she did it and it helped her keep her food down.
The list of things that pregnant women in the U.S. aren't supposed to eat is getting ridiculous: alcohol, chocolate, deli meats, certain cheeses. How did any of us ever survive gestation?
The list of things that pregnant women in the U.S. aren't supposed to eat is getting ridiculous: alcohol, chocolate, deli meats, certain cheeses. How did any of us ever survive gestation?
Posted by ScoutC on 03/08/13 at 05:53 PM
ScoutC the answer is, of course, we didn't this is the matrix.
Expat I totally agree with you on the ridiculous all or nothing, zero tolerance crap. One or two drinks, beers or whatever, is not the same as being a raging alcoholic for God's sakes.
Expat I totally agree with you on the ridiculous all or nothing, zero tolerance crap. One or two drinks, beers or whatever, is not the same as being a raging alcoholic for God's sakes.
Posted by Patty in Ohio, USA on 03/08/13 at 11:16 PM
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Category: Advertising | Alcohol