Ad addiction
Bev Escott has made a business out of her collection of beer adverts. Dominic Roskrow reports
Bev Escott is a hoarder. She has collected and stored classic old magazines ever since she was a student at art college. She continued her hobby in to her marriage and through to motherhood.
But she knew things had got out of control when her massive collection started to take over the house.
“I studied fashion at college and originally I started using the adverts for fashion and it escalated from there,” she says. “But eventually they filled every spare place we had. There were so many you wonder why the floor didn’t give way. It became clear I had to do something with them.” So it was that a few years ago she started her own business, taking the best adverts from the magazines and framing them. And because her husband Richard has a passion for whisky and beer she happened to have a large number of drink-related adverts.
These rapidly emerged among the most popular and before long she was supplying the rapidly expanding pub groups.
“Often when pub companies refurbish a pub they want it to look like a traditional pub with heritage. They seek out original artefacts and my posters were perfect for that.” Bev’s collection of magazines stretch back to the last century but the bulk of them cover this century and provide an intriguing insight in to social history.
For instance, much of today’s marketing of beer promotes the concept of beer with food.
A new idea? Not at all. As long ago as the 50s adverts encouraged couples to order beer with their meal.
The adverts show how .....
To read the rest of this article you can buy this issue
or subscribe to Beers of the World to have every issue delivered direct to your door.
By Dominic Roskrow
Section : Spotlight
Page number : 47
