Jägermeister | 1979
«Ich trinke Jägermeister, weil mir ein Haar in der Suppe lieber ist als umgekehrt.» (I drink Jägermeister because I'd rather have a hair in my soup than the other way round.) It makes little sense, and that was exactly the idea.
Jägermeister comes from Wolfenbüttel, in Lower Saxony. In 1878 Wilhelm Mast founded a vinegar factory and wine business there, the date still printed on the label in this ad. His son Curt Mast created the herbal liqueur and launched it in 1935.
In the following decades, Curt's nephew Günter Mast set out to change the image of a drink for old hunters. One of his tools was the campaign «Ich trinke Jägermeister, weil…»: ordinary people, not models, giving odd reasons for drinking it. A tiny note on the right edge of this ad numbers this young woman as the 1,625th face of the series. Günter Mast also put the brand on the shirts of Eintracht Braunschweig in 1973, the first shirt sponsorship in the Bundesliga.
Today the company is still run by descendants of the Mast family, now in their fifth generation. The ad belongs to a time when alcohol was sold with a wink and a smile; today we know much more about its risks, and the joke reads differently.
And you, did you know any of these «because…» lines by heart?
Text in the ad
»Ich trinke Jägermeister, weil mir ein Haar in der Suppe lieber ist als umgekehrt.«
Jägermeister. Einer für alle.
(Die 1625. von allen.)
Translation:
“I drink Jägermeister because I’d rather have a hair in my soup than the other way round.”
Jägermeister. One for all.
(The 1,625th of all.)
- Brand
- Jägermeister
- Year
- 1979
- Decade
- 1970s
- Country
- Germany
- Medium
- Magazine
- Themes
- Drinks
- Original publication
- Der Spiegel, 1979
