Brand Recognition

August 10

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Evening Post (August 10, 1776).

“Hare’s American best bottled PORTER.”

Most goods advertised and sold in eighteenth-century America did not have brand names associated with them.  Patent medicines were the exception.  Consumers were familiar with a variety of patent medicines, so much so that advertisers could mention them by name without giving any further explanation of their use and purpose.  In an advertisement in the August 10, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post, for instance, George Weed informed the public that he stocked “Dr. Bateman’s pectoral drops[,] Turlington’s balsam of life[,] Dr. Anderson’s pills[,] Dr. Hooper’s female pills[, and] Dr. Benjamin Godfrey’s cordial” at his apothecary shop in Philadelphia.

On the same page, Robert Appleby once again advertised “Hare’s American best bottled PORTER.”  Unlike the generic descriptions of the other items in his notice, “OLD MEDEIRA WINE” and “SPRUCE BEER,” Robert Hare’s porter described a particular beer produced by a particular brewer.  When Hare, the son of an English brewer, migrated to Pennsylvania, he became the first brewer to produce porter in the colonies.  He did so at a time that patriotic Americans boycotted imported goods and made a point of supporting “domestic manufactures” and their producers.  Consumers knew Hare’s Best American Draught Porter by name and for many months by the time Appleby ran his advertisement consumers already associated drinking it with support for the American cause.  In a notice in the Pennsylvania Evening Post published the previous November, William Dibley expressed his confidence “that the sturdy friends of American freedom will afford due honor to this new and glorious manufacture.”  A few weeks later, Dibley’s advertisement appeared alongside one from Patrick Meade who promoted Hare’s porter to “the TRUE FRIENDS to LIBERTY” and another from Joseph Price that offered “HARE’s and Co. best DRAUGHT and BOTTLED AMERICAN PORTER” to “all the SONS of AMERICAN LIBERTY.”  Beyond those accolades, Hare’s porter achieved the distinction of becoming one of the dew products other than patent medicines known to consumers by a brand name during the era of the American Revolution.

January 23

Carl Robert Keyes Daily Advert Update , , , , ,

What was advertised in a revolutionary American newspaper 250 years ago today?

Pennsylvania Evening Post (January 23, 1776).

“HARE’s BEST AMERICAN DRAUGHT PORTER.”

Brand recognition usually was not an element of eighteenth-century advertisements, yet there were exceptions.  Consumers knew a variety of patent medicines by name, in part from the frequency of advertisements in American advertisements.  For instance, retailers regularly ran notices that promoted Keyser’s Pills for treating venereal disease.  The same went for almanacs, such as “POOR WILL’s POCKET ALMANACK” advertised in the January 23, 1776, edition of the Pennsylvania Evening Post.  In the same issue, Edward Jollie, a tobacconist, advertised “IRISH SNUFF” and “SCOTS SNUFF,” but those monikers referred to the style rather than the producer.  Like most consumer goods, they did not have a brand name associated with them.

That newspaper, however, also featured advertisements for a product that had recently achieved brand recognition, at least in and near Philadelphia.  Lewis Nicola once again ran his advertisement for the “AMERICAN PORTER HOUSE” that he operated on Water Street.  He no doubt served “HARE’s BEST AMERICAN DRAUGHT PORTER,” the local brew that William Dibley, Patrick Meade, and Joseph Price all advertised that they served to “the sturdy friends of American freedom,” “the Associators of Freedom,” and “the SONS of AMERICAN LIBERTY” at their establishments.  Immediately to the left of Nicola’s advertisement, another local tavernkeeper announced that he also served porter produced at Robert Hare’s brewery.  Jeremiah Baker took to the pages of the Pennsylvania Evening Post to announce to “his friend and customers, that he has laid in a stock of HARE’s BEST AMERICAN DRAUGHT PORTER” at his tavern “at the sign of Noah’s Ark” on Front Street.  Baker pledged that he served the Hare’s porter “in its greatest purity,” signaling that he did not water down the drinks, but did not consider it necessary to say anything else about the porter.  The name, all in capital letters to attract attention, spoke for itself, an early example of brand recognition.