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That time when the stubby reigned supreme
Ice cold beer: three words that can bring instant solace to a dry throat on a scorching hot summer's day. But what about ice cold beer in a stubby bottle? The stubby was Canada's preferred suds delivery system, up until the buzz killers at Carling O'Keefe launched that Yankee swill Miller in a long neck bottle, thereby triggering the demise of our once-trusted stout brown bottles. By 1986, they were all but a distant memory.
By 2002, stubby nostalgia brought a reprieve from craft brewers like Brick, and of course Red Stripe, who never abandoned their faith in the design. Here are a few of our favourite beer commercials starring the stubby bottle from the 1980s.
Labatt 50's "Cutting Out" campaign was pure macho '80s stuff, with its emphasis on workin' boys getting together and the freeze frame on shades outros. Watch out for slap-head legend Don Lake in the first spot, a ubiquitous TV commercial actor in the '80s who went on to star in Terminator 2, Super Mario Bros. and Best in Show.
Labatt Blue's "Smiles Along With You" was a more inclusive campaign aimed at everyone, and of course anyone who saw these ads will doubtless recall the omniscient blue balloons, which one presumes are piloted by the Labatt Gods, smiling along with all of us as we down our Blue.
Finally we have Molson Light's touching "You Gotta Have Heart" series, which ran through the 1970s and early '80s, only disappearing when mid-decade Molson pitched their Export brand to blue collar workers ("Ex Says It All" ) and their Canadian brand to yuppie assholes ("This Magic Moment").
So, the next time you're enjoying a cool malt pop on a molten hot day, raise a toast to the fallen wee stubbies, a true icon of Canadiana brew lore.
Writing by Ed Conroy
Retrontario plumbs the seedy depths of Toronto flea markets, flooded basements, thrift shops and garage sales, mining old VHS and Betamax tapes that less than often contain incredible moments of history that were accidentally recorded but somehow survived the ravages of time. You can find more amazing discoveries at www.retrontario.com.
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However, market research showed that women were more likely to drink beer out of a long neck - at the time, they were the great untapped beer market. long necks and clear glass provide an inferior beer experience but are more likely, statistically, to sell more beer. C'est la vie.
even though a bottle of beer is probably drank in.. 5-25 mins, depending on the person, the smaller diameter leaves less surface area to be exposed, and therefore helps to hold in the freshness. it's minute, but true.
the same goes for wine. once you've opened a bottle, do not store it on it's side. keep it upright.
It was only introduced in 1961, prior to that Canadian beer came in an assortment of mostly long necked bottles, the current Mill Street Organic bottle shape was a popular option.
Technically it wasn't Carling O'Keefe the broke the stranglehold that the compact bottle had on the Canadian beer market. Those with long memories will recall that in the 70s there were in fact 5 brewers in Ontario, Molson, Labatt and Carling O'Keefe but also Northern and a small brewery in Hamilton (called, if I recall correctly Henniger's) all five were partners in Brewer's Retail and Henniger's had a grandfather clause in the partnership agreement that permitted them to sell a limited quantity of specialty bottles, in the seventies they sold a beer called Heidelberg in a bottle where the body of the bottle was shaped like a barrel, they also sold mini-kegs for home use. That only lasted a little while though.
Fast forward to the early eighties, wishing to get a foothold on the Canadian market Dutch brewer Amstel bought the Henniger brewery and in so doing gained membership in the Brewers Retail system, an advantage that no other non-Canadian brewer could offer. Amstel sought to sell their beer in the Brewers Retail system in their European long necked bottle under the Henninger grandfather clause and I think had to go to court to force the other brewers to allow it, but a fallout of this was that the other partners also won the right to sell non-standard bottles which Carling latched onto for Miller. At the end of the day the strategy backfired on Amstel, instead of being the only brewer allowed to sell a product in a special bottle they got totally beaten at that game by Carling. Miller was so popular the first summer it was offered (which was also the first summer that Labatt's was selling Canadian brewed Budwieser) that they had to kill off 4 other brands to free up capacity to brew more Miller. Of the 4 brands they killed that summer only Black Label was brought back, Red Cap, Kingsbeer and Black Horse disappeared forever (OK, Brick resurrected Red Cap for a while many years later).
I was told once that there were at least two warehouses in Toronto full of brand spankin' new stubbies just waiting for the tide to change. I wonder how that worked out for the hoarder.
Anyway, that's the way I remember the shift.