What Advertising Hath Wrought

Like the Energizer Bunny, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer got his start as an advertising gimmick. A copywriter named Robert L. May first created the merry misfit in 1939 to lure shoppers into the Montgomery Ward department store. Frosty the Snowman and his famous corncob pipe couldnt escape the clutches of the advertising industry either; a whiskeymaker in 1890 used Frostys likeness to showcase an entirely different kind of holiday cheer. Once Prohibition ended, the chain smoking snowman quickly became the go to guy for alcohol ads, appearing in posters for Miller beer, Jack Daniels, Ballantine ale, Rheingold beer, Schlitz beer, Schenley, Oretels lager beer, Chivas Regal scotch, Fort Pitt pale ale, Mount Whitney beer and Four Roses.