Bert and Harry
In the 1950s, the Piels brewery had a very successful television and radio campaign when the Young & Rubicam ad agency created Bert and Harry Piel, the fictitious animated owners and pitchmen for the brewery. Voices were provided by the comedians Bob and Ray. Harry (Bob Elliott) was tall and soft-spoken, always calming down the short loudmouth Bert (Ray Goulding) when something went wrong. The first Bert and Harry commercials aired December 1955 and ran until 1960.
Like most regional breweries, including its New York competitors, Ballantine, Schaefer and Ruppert, Piels was facing an influx of national brands such as Schlitz, Pabst and Budweiser. These brands, backed by massive advertising campaigns, began infiltrating Piels primary sales territory and slowly overtook the market. This was coupled with a disastrous 81-day brewery strike in 1949 that allowed out-of-town brewers to establish a foothold in New York City and helped to end the Piels dynasty. A definitive August 8, 1988, article on beer and sports, "Beer: How It Influences the Games We Play and Watch" (Sports Illustrated) suggests the popularity of the Piels ads actually hurt beer sales because people liked the ads, tried the beer and found out they did not actually enjoy it. Many of the Burt and Harry signs, trays and coasters with slogans (Harry: "Beer anyone?", Bert: "Piels everyone!") are now collectors' items.
Read more about this topic: Piels Beer, History
Famous quotes containing the words bert and/or harry:
“Why don’t you go home to your wife? I’ll tell you what. I’ll go home to your wife and outside of the improvements, you’ll never know the difference. Pull over to the side of the road there and let me see your marriage license.”
—S.J. Perelman, U.S. screenwriter, Bert Kalmar, Harry Ruby, and Norman Z. McLeod. Groucho Marx, Horsefeathers, a wisecrack made to Huxley College’s outgoing president (1932)
“I know what you’re thinking. Did he fire six shots or only five? Well, to tell you the truth, in all this excitement I’ve kinda lost track myself. But being this is a .44 Magnum, the most powerful handgun in the world, and would blow your head clean off—you’ve got to ask yourself one question: Do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?”
—Harry Fink, U.S. screenwriter, Rita Fink, U.S. screenwriter, Dean Riesner, U.S. screenwriter, and Don Siegel. Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood)