Image courtesy of Brown Forman distillers.

Let slip the monkeys of war. In this case, the monkeys are wielding corkscrews and wearing tiny clothes as they scale a bottle of Old Forrester.

I still stare at this classic ad from my bourbon archives and wonder what was going through somebody’s head when he came up with it. I’m guessing it was something stronger than bourbon. I believe the ad dates back to the late 1800s. Old Forrester is still around, but is today spelled with one r instead of two. It was one of the first bourbons sold in a sealed bottle, to ensure its quality and so that doctors could prescribe it without worry. Physicians back then often prescribed whiskey for a variety of ailments, although nowadays I get pretty stern looks when I drink during routine checkups.

Regardless, I don’t quite get how monkeys convey the message that this stuff makes good medicine, but it’s still one of my favorite old ads.