Public advertising of Wilson Whiskey in Times Square in 1941


As I was pondering this wonderful image from the Duke University Libraries site, I got to thinking how strange it would have looked to a lot of people in 1941, and even today, to see whiskey being advertised right out there in public.

This is Times Square, in New York City, specifically at 46th Street and Broadway (the I. Miller building is still there), and this is a gigantic ad for whiskey, which had been an illegal substance to buy and sell up until 1933. And while consumption of alcohol didn't go down during Prohibition (it actually increased), one thing that was true was that there was no public advertising for the stuff, not even beer or wine. So it must have taken some getting used to, seeing a big bottle of whiskey right here in lights on Times Square. Or maybe, like today, no one really noticed the advertising.

Nowadays, of course, alcohol is legal to buy and sell. The legality of its advertising is something that I tried to Google, but it's blurry, and the best I can say is that when I was a kid in the 60s and 70s, it was common, along with cigarette advertising. It seems to have faded away, and there doesn't seem to be much blatant advertising of things like whiskey on billboards anymore. Actually, I can't imagine that there's been much of that in the past twenty years or more.

That being said, I have to admit that the history adventurer in me, along with the old graphic designer, gets a big kick out of looking at this ad. I have no idea how big that bottle is (looks to be about four stories tall), but I just imagine how cool it would look in my garage. That looks like a drawing of Atlas there on the bottle, holding up the world on his shoulder, which to me seems to be the last thing you'd want to do if you were drinking whiskey. But it gets better, because their advertising campaign wants you to drink it a special way, as a highball.


I've never had a highball, although I like whiskey, and I had to look up what exactly that meant. And their sign shows how to make one. You need a tall glass, with ice. You pour in some whiskey and add some seltzer water. I would imagine that at night this sign lit up with the whiskey pouring, and maybe the glass filling up.



And for you fans of historic buildings, here's the I. Miller Building then and now. Looks like they were doing some repairs when the Google Street View van went by. Nice to see this historic building preserved!


And here are the busy New Yorkers, of course paying no attention to the advertising, which is how it should be!

Thank you for visiting Times Square in 1941 with me.! That's all!

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