After the National Repeal of Prohibition in 1933 there was a huge stampede of eye catching advertising being produced by breweries in an effort to stand outside of an already flooded market of beer and brewery advertising. All sorts of advertising was create; everything from large porcelain signs, lighted signs, tin signs, and glass signs were all the crazy and grabbed the attention of viewers immediately.
In 1954 the Old Reading Brewing Company located in Reading, PA was looking for a new way to market their beer and stand outside of the crowd. The issue was advertising… The marketing team at the Old Reading Brewery decided to turn to the Ted Bates Advertising Agency located in New York, NY. The advertising agency was tasked to come up with a new and original idea to market the brewery and beer. The advertising agency came back with the idea to incorporate sexy pin-up illustrations into a new marketing campaign to advertise Old Reading Beer.
The Ted Bates Agency hired an esteemed and famous Peruvian pin-up painter named Alberto Vargas. At the time Vargas had made a name for himself painting realistic pin-up girl illustrations in the movie poster advertising business. Vargas artwork also graced the pages of Esquire Magazine and later Playboy Magazine as well. Vargas painted pin-up art of many notable women at the time including Olive Thomas, Billie Burke, Nita Naldi, Marilyn Miller, Paulette Goddard, Bernadette Peters, Irish McCalla and Ruth Eating.
The idea and design concept for the Old Reading Brewery was to incorporate Vargas’s famous pin-up girl paintings into a series of signs that the brewery could use to promote their beers. The brewery’s marketing team and president Harry Fischman loved this idea since “Sex Sells” and decided to run with it; and the Good Old Reading Beer Vargas Pin-Ups were born.
“From Virginville to Vargas”
As it turns out, one of Vargas #1 models was a young girl named Shirley Feldstadt who was also a Berks County Viginville, PA native. Miss Feldstadt who’s professional name was Shirley Buchanan graced the Old Reading Beer Pin-up advertisement campaign as the voluptuous blonde dressed in pink shoes, pink hair-ribbon and a pink dress. Her image was featured on many of the advertising collateral that the brewery used including a “Old Reading Beer Traditionally Pennsylvania Dutch” billboard; click here to view her Old Reading beer pin-up illustration.
Vargas used 3 different models for his pin-up girl paintings to be used on 4 large cardboard signs, 4 bottle toppers, printed ads, and a series of billboards. These Old Reading Beer Vargas Pin-Ups had taglines like “Sugar-Free” and “Proven By Test, One of America’s Best” also complimented the sexy pin-ups. The artwork was also used in a variety of printed magazine and black and white newspaper ads as well. The advertising became an instant success among the predominately male audience of beer drinks which was the target audience to begin with. Back then there wasn’t too many female beer drinkers due to segregation; and even fewer women we even allowed to enter a bar where men would enter. Unfortunately the advertising campaign only lasted for one year in 1954.
To this day, these Good Old Reading Beer Sugar Free Vargas Pin-Up Signs are tough to find in any condition. They are made of rectangular cut and die-cut cardboard with full color graphics advertising Sugar-Free Good Old Reading Beer. Vargas always signed his artwork “Vargas” in the bottom corner of the advertisements. Most examples of these Old Reading Vargas Pin-Up Signs currently reside in private collections.
Below are a few examples of the Good Old Reading Beer Sugar Free Vargas Pin-Up Signs:
