19th Century part 1: Women as Goddesses and Nurturers
In the 19th century women in public art tended to be depicted as classical allegorical figures (i.e. women who represented an embodied ideal). As such women were depicted everywhere, often in classical dress (or nakedness) representing abstract ideas. For example we had women on coins (and the iconic Statue of Liberty) as Liberty herself. In front of the courthouse a woman wore a blindfold and held the scales of justice. Given the agricultural roots of whiskey production it should come as no surprise that some early whiskey labels depict a a female who evokes the classical representation of Ceres or Demeter, goddess of grain:
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Bininger's Bourbon circa 1860 Library of Congress |
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Roman Goddess Ceres 1852 |
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Roman carving of Ceres - Goddess of Grain. |

Such allegorical depictions could be salacious too (and often were). Allegorical figures were often depicted in the nude - as the image of naked female bathers here in this ad for Old Sunny Brook (shows below). The nude bathers are depicted in a way that evokes the classical and Renaissance depictions of the 3 graces:



Other, more chaste depictions of women in the 19th century whiskey advertising centered on the perception of whiskey as medicinal and women as the mothering, nursing, care givers who administered whiskey as a domestic curative:


On the left, Mom administers Duffy's Pure Malt Whiskey as medicine to Grandpa. Duffy's was a famous case of snake-oil like lie-filled advertising. Malt whiskey was presented a nutritional powerhouse cure-all of disease. Food and drug legislation got its start in the outcry against such exaggerated claims. On the right, Deep Springs Whiskey makes a huge Confederate patriotic play. General Robert E. Lee salutes astride his famous white charger "Traveller" while being hailed by Grey-coat Confederate troops waving the stars and bars. In the foreground a field nurse administers a libation of Deep Springs Bourbon from a freshly opened case to a felled soldier with a bloody bandage on his leg. These depictions show women in the classic role of nurturing care giver.
19th Century part 2: The Saloon Culture of Prostitution
However, in a Madonna/Whore dichotomy, women were also depicted as sexually loose seductresses in 19th century whiskey advertising as well. As Fred Minnick makes clear in his masterful history of the subject, "Whiskey Women", a growing synergy between prostitution and whiskey drinking in the exploding saloon culture of the Wild West and later 19th Century culture of the East was becoming both culturally and economically ascendant:
"During the Gold Rush, taverns, brothels, and casinos popped up all over California, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming, and they all employed women to “please” men and sell whiskey. In what Wild West historian Cy Martin called the “Great Whore Invasion” of 1850– 51, 3 California bar owners ordered prostitutes from Chile, China, Mexico, and France. More than 2,000 women arrived in San Francisco in 1850... Once they arrived at their employer, depending on the establishment, the women became waitresses to serve prospectors working the streams and mines with gold to burn. The average waitress/ prostitute earned $ 15 to $ 25 a week, but she also made a commission on selling whiskey. At San Francisco’s Bella Union, thirty “pretty waiter girls” worked in the upper and lower sections of the casino and encouraged men to buy liquor, while arousing them. The more they drank, the more she earned. One French prostitute earned $ 50,000 in a year, likely thanks to her ability to keep men drinking. Collectively , the income of these women probably exceeded many states’ gross revenue. ... In 1857 New York, sex-hungry men spent more than $ 7 million at brothels or “nearly as much as the annual municipal expenditure of New York City.” Visitors spent nearly as much on wine and liquor, $ 2.08 million, as they did on the prostitutes, $ 3.1 million. 5 The liquor and prostitution business rivaled any moneymaking venture of its time. If a tavern did not offer sexual services, it stood to lose customers."
Minnick, Fred (2013-10-01). Whiskey Women Potomac Books Inc..
Whiskey advertising of the period showed this aspect of the relationship between whiskey and women:
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Old Crow Ad card depicting saloon show girls smoking - 1870. Library of Congress |

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"In The Harem" - Gyula Tornai late 19th century |

The 1903 advertisement for Red Top Rye - a Kentucky rye distributed through Cincinnati OH (right across the Ohio River) shows a pair of free spirited women apparently dressed as Can Can dancers. Their wild spinning dance evokes the head spinning drunk of imbibing alcohol. Their red flowers, exposed legs and wild abandon clearly communicate the sexual abandon of the saloon culture as well:

However the wild abandon of the saloon culture would become its undoing and would usher in the cultural backlash that culminated in Prohibition. Fred Minnick, in "Whiskey Women" describes this movement thus:
"... towns across the country were filled with wives losing husbands to liquor and brothels. The country’s mood toward the saloon became a “social evil” where wild women forced men into intoxication and adultery. ... it was much easier for society to blame the women, often forced sex slaves, and the whiskey than to hold the men accountable for their actions. When answering to their wives for their infidelity , the men would say, “The whiskey made me do it.” This growing concern led to cities cracking down on prostitution and passing prohibitive liquor laws. In 1892 time, it was much easier for society to blame the women, often forced sex slaves, and the whiskey than to hold the men accountable for their actions. When answering to their wives for their infidelity , the men would say, “The whiskey made me do it.” This growing concern led to cities cracking down on prostitution and passing prohibitive liquor laws. In 1892 the San Francisco City Council passed a law prohibiting liquor sales in theaters, effectively destroying Bella Union’s ability to attract clientele . Newspapers ran front-page editorials, calling prostitution a “parent of evil . It is not only a social evil, it is a sanitary evil, and is even becoming a political evil.”
"The best governmental fight against prostitution was temperance. Stopping the saloons and the ladies of the night became the battle cry for the temperance movement. It was also a marketing point for the suffrage movement, with the Woman’s Journal calling woman suffrage a cure for prostitution."
Minnick, Fred (2013-10-01). Whiskey Women (p. 61). Potomac Books Inc.. Kindle Edition.
Repeal - Women As Evidence of Class, Not Objects of Sex
In the aftermath of Prohibition, advertisers were careful to steer clear of any representation of sexuality. Women generally hardly appear on any adverting for whiskey from Repeal until the advent of the sexual revolution in the early 1960s. Men are depicted drinking, either alone or in clubby groups. The few exceptions show women as chaste respectable companions in party or dinner environs that emphasize high class and good manners. View a large gallery of ads from the Repeal era through WWII and see how many men appear on ads vs women during this period.

The women are shown as classy accompaniment for the handsome well dressed men. This is also the case in the 1930 English ad for Dewar's White Label shown below. The tag line hints give us their conversation - turgid and snobby as it is, given their extreme high class and well-dressed for dinner-ness (white tie for him).

The pair of ads for Rittenhouse Rye directly above date from late 1934- the year the brand was introduced (along with Dixe Belle Gin) by Continental Distilling. On the left we see a nostalgic theme of a 19th century sleigh. Uniquely the woman is seen as holding the reins and doing the driving. This is the first time a woman is the primary actor in a whiskey ad that is neither allegorical or salacious. On the right three people ring in the new year 1935 at the stroke of midnight. Two men are disembodied hands. The self possessed woman in the middle of the image is in control - feted by multiple men she presumably gets to choose between. It seems likely that these ads were aimed at women.
The 1950s Fleischmann's Blended Whiskey Campaign: Early Signs of a Coming Sexual Thaw.
In a foreshadowing of the sexual revolution, a rare appearance by women in whiskey ads during this period (outside of populating party pictures or holding a serving tray) is in this famous late 1950s campaign. In each ad a man carries an enormous bottle of cheap Fleischmann's blended whiskey home and elicits appreciative delighted glances and attention from pretty, well dressed (i.e. high status), ladies on the street. Presumably they can't resist the inherent humor of the big bottles. The barely hidden subliminal subtext is that he is hugely endowed with a titanic erect phallus which is what garners the female attention. The women here are to provide the approving gaze - within a subliminal sexual context. That edge of sexuality was new - and about to become a tidal wave. But the women in these transitional ads are chastely fully dressed and at a physical distance.
The 60s and 70s: rise of the Feminist Movement and the Sexual Revolution.


This ad explicitly states the attitude about whiskey that brought about the massive decline in whiskey consumption in the from the 70s through the 90s. If whiskey is harsh and women prefer "lady drinks", vodka and gin, then as a considerate man reading this ad I would reasonably conclude that rather than try to get her to drink some half-@$$'ed "Soft Whiskey" I should just stock up on vodka and gin and fixings for "lady drinks". And, you know what? That's exactly what America did - dropping whiskey like a hot potato for decades.

Late 1960s-Early 70s - White Horse Pretends To Be Feminist to Get Men Laid. But Empowered Women Might Not Be Whiskey Drinkers.



Empowered feminist women are shown in these ads. To the left we see a woman dressed in state-of-the-art Go Go mod clothes literally blindfolded looking for "the good guy". The ads all say "The Good Guys are always on the White Horse". It was meant to evoke an amusing party game but clearly represented the search for a mate. She is doing the choosing. The fact that the button she is using to "pin the tail on the donkey" is the slogan "be a good guy" implies that only through fulfilling her wants can you (the man) be sexually worthy of being selected. This is the opposite of "The Imp" ad above where she docilely sips the drink the man gave her. Here she is actively (if blindly) searching for Mr. Goodbar to give her what she wants. The ad is telling you it's Scotch but you might choose to be more empirical about it. The tough women on the right are ganged up against you, the hapless male, telling you that if you want to make it with them you better be one of "the Good Guys". But the clear modernity of these women dictates the rejection of an old traditional brand of Scotch like White Horse. Secretly you know you had better bring her a Cosmo, Sex on the Beach, or a Margarita, right? In any case - the point is obvious. These women are the ones in control.
More White Horse advertising goodness. On the left we have a young Ali McGraw as part of the crew of women who will judge you harshly if you show up "alone" (i.e. not bearing a bottle of White Horse). Meanwhile, just look a these women. They aren't Scotch drinkers. Who are they kidding? Ditto on the right. This bandy legged fox in the hot red dress wants something. The ad's text says "Wade in straight on. Hug the hostess. Give her a bottle of White Horse and you rate..." It's the same misplaced message attached to an image of the kind of woman you desperately want to sleep with but deep down you know is doing tequila shots. Notice that she's forcefully filling the doorway. The man attending her is sideways, almost invisible.

But, as it turned out in the end, she didn't really want that old Scotch anyway. Yes - White Horse, too, has become a bottom of the shelf cheap blend. All these advertising dollars couldn't stop the juggernaut of changing tastes and the rise of cocktail culture.
Does Being Feminist Mean Drinking Like a Man?


The middle one says "Talk it up". The one on the right says "Liberty. Equality. Ballentines". i.e. be feminist and liberated by being a brand loyal Scotch drinker like a man. This ad is aimed at women and attempted to shoehorn them into the view that empowered means 'Scotch drinking'.
But feminism had empowered women and allowed them to have to upper hand in the mating narrative and also in the drinks selection. Now, with the hindsight of history we know what happened. Whisky bit the dust for a whole generation.

All of these women's liberation period whisky ads reek of the stink of failure. The whisky industry attempted to equate feminine power with the masculine choice of drinking brown but it didn't work at all. Women led the charge towards white spirits and utterly crushed the whisky industry... like a bug.
But this inversion of sexual power dynamics didn't last for long.
(Update - these last two sections have been re-written to incorporate the perceptive analysis Susanna Skiver Barton provided in the comments. Thanks to Susanna for taking the time to engage.)
The 80s through today - Women As Sexual Prizes To Be Won. And finally just disposable faceless aspects of male self-affirmation.
Male sexual power in whiskey advertising quickly played the anti-feminist trump card: objectification. A barrage of ads quickly surfaced that just showed beautiful women adorning the product. The most famous example of this aesthetic were the Black Velvet ads of the late 70s and early 80s:

As we saw last week, in the world of advertising aimed at black men, men clearly have the dominant position. This 1977 Canadian Club ad makes it clear that the man is in charge. The text is explicit: "The CC man is back. He's young. He's confident. He's looking good. Drinking good. Canadian Club Whisky. Look who's drinking Canadian Club now". She isn't even mentioned. The woman's approval is like jewelry for the man: an attractive attribute of him. She has no autonomous reality at all. She is in full retreat into the background while he focuses fully on his whisky. His focus is squarely away from her. It's all about him.
Into the late 1990s we get the Evan Williams "the longer you wait the better it gets" ads. The point here is that ... ahem... whiskey gets better with some maturation. By 100% conflating sexually hot women with the whiskey these ads take whiskey advertising where the Black Velvet ads only hinted. You could still imagine that the Black Velvet babes maybe just drank the stuff. Now, Evan Williams tells you clearly that the babes ARE the stuff. The before and after images of women here imply a history - but that's not the point. The point is that they have become sexually awesome with some "time in the barrel" - just like the whiskey. You aren't meant to consider them as human beings; solely as objects of desire and then associate that feeling with the whiskey. We are squarely back in the oriental harem here in terms of gender dynamics.

A fashion ad? Yes - like this notorious Dolce & Gabbana pseudo rape ad. It's all about male power and the woman is a silent victim - robbed even of her power to shock or evoke pity because she so damned fashionable and immaculately put together. Male power is hot and female submission is a style decision - like whether to wear leather.

Oh NO! It's an overweight, and thus horribly unattractive woman! She is clearly not at all a part of the century long narrative of female beauty so carefully constructed over decades. That's unacceptable! Who will save our poor male protagonist now?

The controversy over this spot was well documented on Grub Street:
http://www.grubstreet.com/2013/12/dewars-meet-the-baron-ad.html
And, perhaps, even better on Malt Maniac Oliver Klimek's blog Dramming:
http://www.dramming.com/2013/12/11/baron-dewar-crash-landing-of-a-glasgow-superhero/

Later we get to see that the Baron and the protagonist share the reward: a date with the "Swedish bikini team" of ultra-hot blondes.
The whole campaign is "hosted" by the lingerie and fur clad woman you see at right. In a series of object lessons (the spots), this lingerie-clad hottie is going to teach you to be a real man. Hint: it involves disrespecting women and embracing some very antique notions of behavior. That socialization lesson is underscored by fashion and facial hair cues taken from the Victorian period. (For more on this pulled campaign read this fawning piece: http://www.theruggedmale.com/dewars-the-drinking-mans-scotch-claire-forlani/).
Now, thanks to Johanne McInnis (The Whisky Lassie) that particularly offensive ad campaign from Dewars was pulled - but that it was even produced and then released shows that our Zeitgeist is at least partially here: Feminism took whiskey away; whiskey's return means feminism's negation. Women in this ad campaign have no autonomous reality. They are just affirmation for the men in these ads. Meanwhile, in the real world, women are becoming an important market for whiskey. Yet, much of the whiskey marketing feels like it's giving life lessons to sadly clueless men. Significantly, women in these recent ads are not about - as they were in the 30s-50s - class, or - as they were in the 60s-70s - immediate sex potential. Now they have become accessories to male empowerment. The point here isn't that women will have sex with you if you give them whisky. It's that women will let you be in the dominant position - as if the women's movement of the 60s and 70s had never happened. Whiskey is presented as a cultural vestige of a time before feminism - and a magical way to transport you there.

Socially, "we've come a long way, Baby" but we still have far to go when it comes to depicting women in a mature way in whiskey advertising. The last century and a half has seen tremendous advances, from suffrage through the women's rights movement. But women are still paid pennies on the dollar compared to men and women are still depicted as objects and accessories and symbols of sex, rather than actual people. They are still shown as feminine visitors to an exclusive male enclave of whisky which ignores the fact that women are a real and important growing market for whiskey. In real life, women are empowered in the whiskey world - but they have not found a voice in the way whiskey is advertised yet at all. Whisky, of course, isn't a magical elixir that puts women in a traditional role. It's actually a tasty drink that women largely invented (at least according to Fred Minnick's Whiskey Women). I wonder when it will start to be sold that way?
Great piece, my friend! I love the historical arch your latest posts have taken. Keep on it!
ReplyDeleteThanks, JP! As a former marketer who loves history and blogs whisky this kind of thing is like a grand synthesis for me!
DeleteVery nice work, Josh! In the last photo there's a clear Playboy bunny in the woman's hand: the thumb and lighter flame form the ears; the nail is the eye; there is even the bowtie, in the knuckle of the ring finger. And she likes to play with the fire. Pretty cool! Obviously directed to a young audience - it's JB white, not Booker's that they are advertising.
ReplyDeleteWOW! That's right, Florin. I didn't see that before. I had intended to write about how the message "get in touch with your masculine side" was a double entendre because a woman looking at it might interpret that as "drink Bourbon" and be more butch; but a man looking at it would interpret drinking bourbon means being old school man enough for a woman like the one in the picture who, presumably, is looking for an old school "macho man". I just stuck with the latter view - which I'm pretty sure is what they were aiming for.
DeleteThat's a very clever advertisement. Finding the "easter egg" (bunny pun intended?) of the Playboy signature bunny hidden somewhere in the cover photo every month was (and probably still is; I don't know; I'm old now) always a fun challenge on your way to the centerfold.
DeleteI actually read the Cutty Sark ad as an implication that the women have become so liberated they are now like men—that is, all these people in the ad prefer Cutty Sark "to a man" where the phrase means "each and every one of them." It's a misreading of feminism that many still cling to, understanding women's equality as the transformation of women into men.
ReplyDeleteOn one level "To A Man They Say Cutty" literally means that "each and every one says Cutty" - and that it's using an archaic and sexist construction to use the word "man" to refer to those women. That sense conflates liberated women with men - which would be resonant in the early days of feminism (and maybe still is - just as you say). The other way to see it, is to interpret the word literally - i.e. they say "Cutty" when talking to a man, say, at a bar where he is trying to pick them up. The double entendre is a little witty and obviously why they chose to spend money on the ad campaign. Either way, however, it is diminishing of women in general and feminism in particular. Either they are mannish or just trolling for men to buy them drinks - either way it's not empowered feminism at all. Actually a pretty snarky pot shot at feminism. Thanks for pointing that out.
DeleteOn reflection, Susanna, I've decided you are totally right. I have re-written part of the last two sections to reflect your view. Thanks!
DeleteWhat a great discourse on the relationship between whiskey advertising and changes in the social fabric! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, it's easy (too easy, really, but that's not a criticism of your excellent article) to equate the position of advertising copywriters and the actual products being touted. Many times the ad-men are simply given a new product (or a hopefully-to-be-revitalized old product) and ordered to come up with something that will increase demand.
I, too, believe that the change from brown spirits with distinctive flavor to white- or light spirits with less (or no) flavor is intricately connected with the rise of females as a potential market. And I agree adamantly with your observations that females prefer liquor that they can pretend is not present in their cocktails to "put them into a more relaxed mood". But I also think that a major incentive toward the elevation of vodka, white rum, and other such spirits was that the major whiskey distilleries, and the multinational drinks companies that began dictating what they would distill, were extending their operations to include such spirits and they quickly found that vodka, gin, rum, and other unaged white liquor were infinitely cheaper to produce than their barrel-aged brethren. Not to mention that supply could be coordinated with demand virtually on the fly. Regardless of the demands put upon advertising firms, the real fact is that every bottle of vodka sold equals at least one bottle of whiskey costing maybe three times that to produce. Probably more since, as you've pointed out, the women for whom these more cost-effective spirits are the larger market are likely to be an increasing market while the male-dominated (and mostly older males and younger men trying to emulate them) market stays pretty much the same or is decreasing.
I just saw a Bushmills ad - it was forced on me when I called up a song on you tube - where the word "sex" was clearly displayed across the bottom of a screen where a band was playing against a backdrop of whiskey barrels. I doubt it was on the screen for more than half a second, maybe even less.
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ReplyDeleteClicked through via a random google image search result (specifically, the mildly offensive but stunning Black Velvet ad), and read the whole post. Not related to any particular interests of mine, but a fascinating and enjoyable read anyway!
ReplyDeleteThe decrees of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.(Psalm 19:7 NLT)
ReplyDeleteAnd I persecuted the followers of the Way, hounding some to death, arresting both men and women and throwing them in prison . . .(Acts 22:4 NLT)
In the year 2000 and into 2001, which whiskey distiller had those great ads that stated simply, "Whiskey Woman" and showed a young lady at a bar, possibly near a billiards table?
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