The latest issue of Whisky Magazine, issue 137, features part 2 of my series on the history of Scotch whisky advertising, which is now stretching to four parts. This moves on from the early years of price lists, where we saw a transition from family merchants to brands. Now advertisers were becoming a lot smarter – one particularly clever fellow was Tommy Dewar, who among many things in 1911 created an enormous mechanical sign, on the tower at Dewar’s Wharf, London embankment.
The article also discusses how, long before platforms such as the internet, whisky companies would use their advertisements to push for a particular political outcome, and to especially complain against taxation. Finally the piece looks at how brands began to respond to the First World War with patriotic images and, later, reassurances of pre-war quality.
Anyway, you can read about it in issue 137. Scotch advertising remains a fascinating record of the whisky industry. Part four, which will focus on single malts, should be especially interesting.
