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Vintage Toronto Ads: Easy-Going, Manly Ales

By Jamie Bradburn

20091013labatts.jpg
Source: Liberty, May 1960.

Based on these ad campaigns for two of Labatt’s top-selling brews in 1960, we surmise that 50 was targeted to men who indulged in a healthy round of log rolling/jumping or other potentially fatal tomfoolery while downing a few stubbies, while IPA was intended for the alpha male who wanted no distractions, apart from watching his favourite sport, while indulging in his favourite beverage.
India Pale Ale was one of the company’s oldest brands, having won awards in North American brewing competitions as far back as 1876. Labatt 50 arrived on the scene in 1950 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of the corporate stewardship of John S. and Hugh Labatt. The brew was Labatt’s best-seller until Blue overtook it in the late 1970s. Though it never regained the sales crown, 50 later developed a reputation as a cheap brew for hipsters to knock back.



What better place for happy young Toronto drinkers to sing the praises of their favourite beer in 1971 than the recently opened Ontario Place?

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  • http://undefined spacejack

    Speaking of old-timey beers that re-emerged as hipster favourites, remember those Black Label ads from the late 80s/early 90s?

  • http://undefined Chester Pape

    The key thing with selling beer to hipsters is you can’t get caught actually marketing to the hipsters directly or they’ll turn on you more reliably than the Leafs choking in the 3rd period (sorry for the horribly mixed metaphor, best I could come up with on short notice). Black Label’s owners (I can’t for the life of me remember if it happened before or after Carling was acquired by Molson) broke this cardinal rule.
    Is it still possible to get 50 in quarts? anywhere? I know that you can still get Bud in quart bottles but I’ve never seen any other brand in that packaging.

  • http://undefined spacejack

    Well to be fair, it was quite successful and a landmark for beer marketing. Black Label may have lost a lot of its original “punk” customer base* with that campaign, but I can remember a time when going to alterna-clubs you’d see half the crowd drinking those. But like any trend, it eventually went out of style.
    * I was introduced to Black Label by some fairly well-off “punk” roommates about a year before the campaign hit. So in a sense it was already over before the re-branding started.

  • http://undefined mark.

    Uh, 50 used to be cheap, but now it’s the same as any other ‘premium domestic’ (Canadian, Blue, Kieth’s, etc.).
    I find Guelph’s Maclays to be a decent cheap beer. At least better than Stroh (also Guelph) who also makes PBR here.

  • http://undefined TokyoTuds

    They stocked 50 at my highschool reunion last month in London … what a flashback! I drank mainly Ex until I started university, and had a brief fling with Schooner at U of T (OMG) …..

  • Adam Sobolak

    Interestingly, the bottles in the old ads *aren’t* stubbies…

  • David Toronto

    I can remember tall bottles from the ’50s in Ontario.
    Then, at some time in the ’60s, they moved to the stubby
    bottle format. When exactly the “peroxide” bottles came into service, I don’t know.

  • http://undefined mjp

    Quarts of 50 abound in coolers at Quebec corner stores but, sadly for many, not so much here.

  • http://www.guesswork.ca Patrick Metzger

    I remember Black Label being overwhelmingly the beer of choice in the London Ont punk scene as early as 1981 or so. If Carling/Molson managed to ride that for a decade before they killed it with too much love I guess they had a pretty good run.

  • http://undefined David Toronto

    Notice also that the ad shows the beer only in the last few seconds and it’s either in the glass or in the bottle. Showing the pouring of beer was not permitted.
    Notice also, that nobody is seen drinking the product.
    That too was not permitted.
    At one time, beer ads could not be shown in the weekdays before about 8 or 9 pm. There were restrictions on weekends and I don’t know about Sunday advertising.
    It’s almost as bad as the restrictions in taverns in those days.

  • http://undefined fantasygoat

    When I was 16 I drank Black Label so I didn’t really have any “50″ connection until recently, when I tried one as a lark and I found that I actually quite liked it.
    Unlike PBR which is basically undrinkable swill.
    But “fiddy” is actually pretty damn good for a “cheap” beer.