Sitting quietly in a glass, cask, or bottle, beer is not always its own best spokesperson, and needs some help getting the word out about its quality, availability, and origin. The earliest advertising vehicles were very simple. In the days of ancient Sumeria, a Brewster would announce the availability of fresh ale by hanging a bush above her door. In medieval times, this symbol of a bush or a broom was known as an ale stake, with the simple message, “We have beer.” Early tavern or brewpub signs were visual advertising, appropriate for an illiterate clientele. Very little evidence for graphically branded beers exists prior to the mid-19th century, although it is clear that certain breweries enjoyed wide fame. In 1876 the Bass red triangle was the first trademark for any product to be registered in Britain, although the mark had been in use for decades prior to that date.

Modern advertising for beer began in the 1880s with the development of polychrome lithography, which allowed complex and colorful imagery to be applied to a paper or metal surface. Posters became an important advertising vehicle, especially in Europe, where notable artists such as Alfonse Mucha, A. M. Cassandre, and Ludwig Hohlwein produced memorably creative examples. One of the most notable was a series of posters by John Gilroy for Guinness in the 1930s and 1940s, featuring slogans like “Guinness is good for you,” with striking imagery such as the famous toucan balancing a pint on his beak.

In the United States, images of alluring women or smoke-belching breweries were preferred, but the most famous American brewery lithograph is the 1896 Budweiser piece, Custer’s Last Fight. Adolphus Busch had a few extra scalpings added to an existing painting, making it more sensational. Busch was also famous for handing out “Stanhope” pocketknives with a peephole showing his portrait.

Enameled metal signs were also popular advertising pieces and because of their durability were most often used for exterior signage, advertising the brands available in saloons. Point-of-purchase advertising also included trays, mirrors, glassware, tap knobs, coasters, and back-bar pieces made of plaster, metal, and eventually plastic. Neon beersigns started to appear after Prohibition. Many of these pieces were dazzlingly beautiful; all are now highly collectible.

Trade card, c. 1884. Modern advertising for beer began in the 1880s. pike microbrewery museum, seattle, wa

Mass media beer advertising did not begin until after World War II. Full-page ads in general-interest magazines became popular. One famous print campaign, Beer Belongs, was commissioned by the United States Brewers Foundation. It featured illustrations of common lifestyle activities along with beer and food images, positioning beer as “America’s beverage of moderation.” The idea was to undo some of the damage to beer’s market share that had been done by Prohibition. Between 1945 and 1956 at least 136 of these ads appeared, although during that period per capita consumption of beer actually dropped.

In the 1950s, radio broadcasts became important along with sponsorship of baseball and other sports. As soon as the medium appeared, beer advertisers made the leap to television. Budgets took a huge jump in the 1970s, after Philip Morris took control of Miller, and for the first time targeted women as well as men. Spending reached a peak in 2007 (Anheuser-Busch spent $1.36 billion in marketing that year) and has declined since.

The most significant television campaign for an American beer is almost certainly McCann–Erikson Worldwide’s “Tastes great, less filling” campaign for Miller Lite. The product, which had been languishing as a diet beer for women, was repositioned as a beer that could be consumed in larger quantities (less filling). By linking with eccentric celebrity athletes in a humor-filled campaign, Lite became a roaring success, forever changing the beer industry. With this success, Miller’s volume nearly doubled between 1973 and 1977, and in 1992 Miller Lite displaced Budweiser as the number one beer in America.

British beer advertising has tended to be more tongue in cheek and occasionally edgy. Brewery Shepherd Neame first brewed its now-popular beer Spitfire in 1990 to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. Ever since, the advertising for Spitfire has often referenced World War II and taken some glee in tweaking the Germans. The early 2000s campaign “No Fokker comes close” certainly caught people’s attention. Some other British brewery advertising lines have become classics, such as the one for Cardiff’s Brains Brewery: “It’s Brains you want.”

Over the decades brewery advertising has been much criticized for sexism, irresponsibility, appeal to underage drinkers, and other transgressions. In the United States the Beer Institute adopted an Advertising and Marketing Code to address criticism and offer its large-brewery members some guidance on what to avoid—mainly advertising to those below the drinking age. Since 2005, the European Union has had a similar “audiovisual directive,” implemented by industry groups in each country, but some countries, like France, have banned all alcohol advertising on television and billboards. Restrictions tend to follow a society’s attitudes about alcohol in general. On the proactive side, larger breweries and brewery associations have campaigns designed to deter underage drinking and drunk driving.