I am probably about the only 37 year old in America who has never taken a sip of beer who didn’t have some religious reason against it.  When they told me in school not to drink, smoke or do drugs, dammit, I listened!  I’m so square in that department, I make the original timeline George McFly look like The Fonz…

Aw, come on! Live a little, douchebag!

That being said, I’ll be the first to admit that when it comes to memorable and funny ad campaigns, the beer companies know how to do it.  The 80’s were full of great commercials for beer, whose brands I was already familiar with due to a childhood full of helping my Dad pick up aluminum cans off the side of the road for extra money.  For today’s Flashback Friday, here’s a few of my favorites that seem to have slipped through the cracks….

Gimme A Light!

I live in Anheuser Busch InBev territory, so I probably see more ads for their products than people in other parts of the country.  This Bud Light campaign was all over TV in the mid 80’s, and the gag never got tired.  A guy goes up to the bar and says “Gimme a light!”  He gets assaulted by some form of luminescence, before quickly backtracking and saying, “No!  Bud Light!”  I’m not going to embed all of the old ads I can find, since too many embedded videos cause the pages to load slow, but you can check out more of the ads from this campaign by clicking on the random links I have in this sentence….

No! Bud Light!

Bad Humor Fun Fact:  This campaign was the inspiration behind a really tasteless joke regarding the Challenger explosion when I was in grade school.  I’ll leave it to your imagination (or perhaps memory) to figure out what it was….

It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This!

What in the heck ever happened to Old Milwaukee anyway?  I guess it did get better than this.  But who could forget their commercials where the Swedish Bikini Team would always drop in on some unsuspecting lucky guys?  While not as widespread as the Bud Light campaign, it still became a pop culture phenomenon while the commercials were airing in the late 80’s.

It doesn’t get any better than this…

Alex From Strohs

Sure, Spuds MacKenzie got all the fame, fortune and chicks in the 80’s.  But there was another famous canine beer lover who paved the way for Spuds to become the official mutt of beer commercials….

Alex, we hardly remember ye!  If it weren’t for a throwaway line in Tone Loc’s “Funky Cold Medina” (where even there you get second billing to Spuds), you’d have completely fallen out of the public conscious.  But here at The Nest, we remember you and celebrate your ability to open up the icebox and bring your master a beer!  At least you weren’t hanging out with a bunch of skanks and slutatorians like ol’ Honey Tree Evil Eye…

That was Spuds real name, in case you didn’t know. Now your visit to The Nest has been educational!

One Pin Rodney!!!!

I come from a bowling family, and this classic Miller Lite ad (part of the uberfamous “Less Filling, Tastes Great” campaign) is still a running joke for us….

When it comes down to the bitter end, and it doesn’t seem like much is needed to be the winner,  nothing puts the pressure on like yelling out, “One pin, Rodney!!!”  One of my favorite commercial phrases ever….

In a future Flashback Friday, maybe I’ll take a look at some of the memorable beer ad campaigns of the 90’s.  Until then, remember not to drink and drive, and never just ask for a light….

Rookie.