Schlitz became known as Milwaukee's premium beer after the 1871 fire that devastated Chicago. The blaze destroyed the city's breweries, and Schlitz filled the void by establishing 2,000 taverns, saloons and other retail locations between Milwaukee and Chicago. Schlitz became one of the first breweries to engage in outer-region marketing. Its "The beer that made Milwaukee famous" slogan first appeared in Schlitz ads around 1893, joining the "belted globe" logo, which had been introduced in 1886.
In the late 1880s, brewers took their products to county and state fairs in search of consumer support, and the Olympics of beer competitions were the world's fairs. In 1893, while Pabst won the blue ribbon for its entry at the World's Colombian Exposition in Chicago, Schlitz took the top prize for beer purity, an award it leveraged in ads. As a result, Schlitz briefly became the U.S.' top-selling brewer.
But Schlitz's popularity began to wane, and soon after the turn of the century, the brewer tapped the J.L. Stack agency in Racine, Wis., to help it regain its lost status. Stack assigned the account to Claude Hopkins, who engineered a new national ad campaign around the brew's purity claim.
Schlitz advertised the purity of its beer in a number of ways. Some ad copy explained why the beer was healthy to drink; other copy let the reader "listen in" on a conversation between two doctors who agreed that beer was a healthful beverage. Frequently the copy was accompanied by the Schlitz maiden, "Purity," in various stages of undress, sometimes holding a white dove, to underscore the company's claim.
Ads were topped off by the Schlitz globe and the "Beer that made Milwaukee famous" tagline. The campaign helped Schlitz regain its No. 1 status.
After 1910, beer sales again began to dry up due in large part to the onset of World War I and Prohibition. When the U.S. entered the war in 1917, Congress restricted the use of the foodstuffs needed for the production of alcoholic beverages. That war-born spirit of self-denial also helped accelerate the wave of anti-alcohol sentiment that was sweeping the country at the time.
Many leading brewers, such as Schlitz, were of German descent, and that made the drive against alcohol all the more popular. Between 1920 and '33, Prohibition forced Schlitz to remove nearly all the alcohol from its beverage, then marketed as Famo and Schlitz Special Brew.
Stack handled the Schlitz account until 1933, when the brewer moved it to McJunkin Advertising. Over a 13-year period, McJunkin encouraged beer drinkers to rediscover Schlitz by promoting "that famous flavor" and offering it as an acceptable beverage to upscale audiences by touting it as "a distinguished beer" suitable "for great occasions." It also helped promote Old Milwaukee, a new beer Schlitz had introduced.
World War II, however, forced another curtailment of production, and the company refocused on its flagship product. In 1943, McJunkin introduced the "Kiss of the Hops" campaign for Schlitz.
Young & Rubicam took over the account from 1947 until 1951, when Schlitz diversified its advertising in an attempt to take advantage of the growing popularity of TV. It gave the TV and radio portions of the account to Lennen & Newell, which launched "The Schlitz Playhouse of Stars" on CBS. Irwin & Vladimir was given responsibility for promoting Schlitz overseas, while Leo Burnett Co. drew the job of selling the beer via outdoor advertising.
Some of Schlitz's print ads were criticized for the way they portrayed women, while other ads' use of "Schlitzwords," such as "schlitznic" for picnic, also failed to win favor with beer drinkers. J. Walter Thompson Co. handled the account from 1956 until '61, hyping Old Milwaukee beer as the "True Milwaukee beer flavor" while at the same time urging consumers to "Move up to quality; move up to Schlitz."
Burnett landed the brewer's account in 1962, and held onto it for almost 17 years. Burnett introduced Schlitz Malt Liquor, Schlitz Lite and Erlanger, while continuing to advertise Schlitz and Old Milwaukee.
"Go for the gusto"
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