A draft of cold commerce

The strange persistence of pint-glass advertising.

Before the internet came along and reduced it to just another website, the Yellow Pages was the go-to source when you needed the address for a pizza parlor, the number of a reliable plumber, or a target for prank calls. When the new edition was delivered each year, the golden guide was given a place of distinction near the rotary phone and maybe even outfitted with a vinyl cover to protect it from spills. The Yellow Pages reached Bible levels of household saturation. It was a revered book.

The Yellow Pages is largely gone now, but the concept lives on in the form of pint-glass advertising. Local spots like the Villa Tap and the Badger Tavern (formerly Tony Frank’s) still have special, ad-covered glassware in service. If you’re lucky enough to get your beer or Bloody Mary in one, you’ll get a little shot of nostalgia if you’re old enough to remember the Yellow Pages. But at the very least, you’ll have some reading material.

Advertising on pint glasses is a way for local businesses to be seen by people who are drinking. When you’re drinking, your drink is never far away. It’s important to keep it close. And that means all those little rectangular ads for golf courses, personal injury lawyers, roofers, auto body shops, and hair salons are close by, too.

Bar Hoppers Pint Glasses is a Wisconsin-based business that specializes in putting advertising on drinkware, which it describes as “a new way to billboard.” On its website, the company provides a succinct explanation of how these glasses find their way into local taverns and into the hands of their patrons.

Bar Hoppers’ website says it provides free custom 16-ounce pint glasses to willing establishments. It handles all the ad sales, design work, and distribution. It just needs bars to fill them with booze and set them in front of customers, and bars were going to do that anyway. As the company points out, this is advertising that isn’t thrown out or recycled (unless it shatters, I guess). It can last for years.

PintSpace, an Oregon, Wisconsin-based business started by a Packers fan and a Vikings fan, claims to be the nation’s largest provider of pint-glass advertising. The company has made pint glasses for spots including Boxcar’s Pub & Grub in Clinton, Bubba’s Brickyard in Burlington, and the Press Box Bar & Grill in Sauk City.

As with similar businesses, PintSpace’s glasses are advertising-supported, meaning bars and restaurants can get them for free. Since the business renews its advertising spots every year, businesses get another free supply of pint glasses every year, too. It’s basically like Tubi or Pluto TV, but instead of offering reruns of Matlock and the American Ninja films, it’s offering something to hold booze.

The internet has all but eliminated the need for the Yellow Pages. But the internet sucks as a beer glass; so, in a clever way, pint-glass ads have found a way to keep a seemingly obsolete format alive.