Bikes, Beer and Cigarettes

Through a number of previous posts, I've looked at some vintage bicycle ads that I found interesting, or beautiful, or even just blatantly sexist. But bicycles have been used to sell other products as well -- like beer and cigarettes.

Okay - beer. A favorite aprés ride beverage for many bicyclists. It makes sense. Cigarettes? That one's a little harder to process, given what we now know. Anyhow, take a look at a few old beer and cigarette ads I've found that feature bicycles.

Here's a really old one, around 1899 -- Bieres Phénix. Beer and bikes go back a long way, apparently.

A fun one from the 1950s. Long before Pabst became the favorite ironic beverage of bike-riding hipsters.

Another one from the 60s. Here we see what the front basket is really for.

Is that Ed McMahon? Twice? Anyhow -- another tandem, baskets loaded with Bud. From the 1970s

From the 1980s.

Fat Tire Ale has this great vintage-look label.

And Cigarettes!

Cigarettes, like Player's brand notably, used to come with little trading cards. Bicycle images were common.

Don't you always want to relax with a smoke after winning a race? From the early 70s, if I had to guess.

This Salem ad, from the 70s, actually included a bike giveaway. "His -n- Hers" 10 speeds! Five hundred pairs of bikes were given away. I wonder how many of the bikes actually got ridden.

This one might shock some people, but Eddy Merckx, like a lot of European pros of the time, was very much a smoker. No bicycle in sight, though.

Not an advertisement -- but just a little historical context. I think a lot of us have seen this old image from the Tour de France. Interestingly, in those days, people thought smoking would actually help them -- some doctors recommended smoking for the health benefits!