Beauty and the Beer

IN 1939, BOB WECHSLER, a 26-year-old executive with printer/promotion agency Einson Freeman, happened to call on Phillip Liebmann, the young president of the little-known Liebmann Brewery, to present a new printing process for the brewery’s P-O-P. At the time, the two could not possibly have imagined that their discussion would evolve into the longest running and, by virtually all standards, most successful promotion in beer history. Most folks don’t remember the brewery, but they do remember its key brand, Rheingold, which at the time ranked sixth in the highly competitive metro New York market. Most of all, anyone over 40 who grew up in the Northeast can still fondly recall their promotion: the “Miss Rheingold Contest.”

The whole thing started when Wechsler used some photos of a Chilean-born actress by the name of Jinx Falkenburg to make a point about the quality of the new P-O-P. Liebmann appreciated the printing quality, but was swept away by the gorgeous Miss Falkenburg, and chose her as the spokeswoman for his brewery’s premier brand of beer, Rheingold. Falkenbburg, now dubbed “The Rheingold Girl,” began to appear in every form of communication the brewery used — newspaper, magazine, packaging, as well as in on- and off-premise P-O-P. As the now 90-year-old Wechsler recalled recently: “That was the real beauty of the whole campaign, everything was based on Miss Rheingold.” Sales of Rheingold in 1940 responded dramatically to the new campaign, and so in an effort to include the trade, Liebmann and the Einson agency decided to let retailers choose “Miss Rheingold 1941” from a collection of 24 photos of top models. Retailers picked Miss Falkenburg for the second year, but Liebmann, insisting that the campaign needed to be kept fresh, selected a new queen for his beer. Rheingold sales shot up even higher, and so, knowing a good thing when they saw it, they decided to let consumers vote to select the new “Miss Rheingold 1942” from six finalists. In the great tradition of East Coast politics people voted early and often that August, and 200,000 ballots were cast. Thus began a promotion that would span 25 years.

To say that the Miss Rheingold contest was huge would be like describing Mother Theresa as “thoughtful.” “‘Miss Rheingold’ was better known than Miss America,” asserts Wechsler. It seemed every store that sold or served beer proudly displayed the new Miss Rheingold’s likeness each year. All this courtesy of the brewery and a fanatical sales force that hung promotional P-O-P with a zeal that can be likened only to that of 19th century missionaries converting the heathen masses.

The contest process itself was astonishingly thorough, even by today’s media-heavy standards. Young women would appear at the famous Waldorf Astoria’s ballroom before a panel of celebrity judges that, over the years, included Tony Randall, Joan Fontaine, Casey Stengel, Irene Dunne, Rosalind Russell, Van Heflin, Douglas Fairbanks Jr., and even a former Miss America, Polly Bergen. Girls were judged on wholesomeness and personality — surprising for a beauty contest, but they were rarely shown from the neck down, and were virtually never depicted in bathing suits. The contest became the launching pad for the careers of a number of aspiring actresses (much as the current television hit show American Idol is today for singers). Actresses like Tippi Hedren and Hope Lange were finalists in the contest. Very few, however, were that lucky. Most were like the unknown 19-year-old from Philadelphia who was sent home from 1948’s contest for being “too thin.” Don’t feel too sorry for the girl though; Grace Kelly filled out and eventually went on to find other work.

By 1952, the Miss Rheingold contest was drawing 25 million votes annually, a total exceeded only by that year’s presidential election, which sent Dwight D. Eisenhower to the White House. “It was incredible,” muses Wechsler. “We gave the consumer nothing, we gave the retailer nothing, still people couldn’t wait for the contest to start each August.” Response like that made the contest a cultural icon, to the point that each year the stodgy New Yorker magazine would feature a cartoon poking fun at New York City’s most hotly contested annual election. In one of the magazine’s most recognized cartoons, a bartender is depicted fleeing his burning tavern with the Miss Rheingold ballot box clutched protectively in his arms.

Most importantly, however, the campaign worked for the brand, elevating Rheingold’s share of market from a distant sixth to Number One, a position that it held into the sixties. “The most wonderful thing,” according to Wechsler, “was that Liebmann would never allow anything to be changed. He had several different ad agencies over the life of the campaign, and he would never allow them to touch his contest.”

The Miss Rheingold Contest ended on an ugly note in 1964 when, faced with increasing ethnic diversity in New York, the brewery elected to stop what had been a lily-white campaign, rather than integrate it and risk the displeasure of some consumers. In 1965, the brewery “appointed” their new queen, but the magic was over. Sales began a decline that eventually led to the brewery’s closing in 1976.

Recently, there’s been some interest, spurred by Terry Liebmann, a descendant of the brewery’s founding family, to relaunch the brand and the Miss Rheingold Contest. They have an uphill battle, but win or lose I’ll always cherish the memory of the fifties radio jingle:
“Vote, vote for Miss Rheingold,
vote for Miss Rheingold ’59.
Vote, vote for Miss Rheingold,
vote for Miss Rheingold ’59.
Make your favorite selection,
in our annual election….”

Now, here’s the deal: The first person to e-mail me the last two lines of this ditty wins. You see, I was only nine years old in 1959, and these last two lines have had me stumped ever since. It really was quite a memorable campaign!

Rod Taylor is senior VP of CoActive Marketing. He can be reached at [email protected].

Turn on the Way-Back Machine…

…and tell us which promotions from the past were your favorites. We’ll track them down, extract the lessons to be learned and include a profile in upcoming editions of Backward Glance. Contact either Rod Taylor or PROMO Editor Kathleen M. Joyce at [email protected] with your ideas and suggestions.