TV wine ads: King Solomon wine, because “Tonight … the king is in town”
by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On
This 1984 King Solomon wine commercial knows what it’s about: “33 percent more wine than the regular size”
The Wine Curmudgeon’s TV wine ad survey has found the good (very little), the bad (almost all) and now this — a 1984 spot on a local Philadelphia station for something called King Solomon wine.
This ad is odd, and not just because of its content. For one thing, Pennsylvania was a control state (and still mostly is), so the only place to buy King Solomon wine would have been a state store. And, given this is a concord wine sold because it’s cheap, it’s difficult to believe a state store would have carried it. Apparently, the company that marketed it was well known in Philadelphia, producing a variety of off-brand spirits and wines. so maybe it had some clout with the state.
The other thing I can’t figure out: What does a genie have to do with the Biblical King Solomon?
Still, the ad is on message: The wine is cheap, there’s a lot of it, and it will get you drunk — “a big, bold, two-fisted wine.” How many other TV wine ads actually say what they mean?
Video courtesy of Hugo Faces via YouTube
More about TV wine ads:
• Is this the greatest TV wine commercial ever??
• Hendrick’s gin: How to do a TV booze commercial
• TV wine ads: John Gielgud makes a quick buck plugging Paul Masson
two takeaways:
1) I wonder if the wine is kosher.
2) Shouldn’t they call that bigger size a Solomonzar?
I am guessing it was knockoff on Mogen David and Manischewitz, the two best known concord grape wines and which are Kosher. But, given the marketing approach, I don’t think it was Kosher.
“I pity the fool!”
King Solomon Wine appears to be marketed to African Americans.
As for it being Kosher: there’s a Sammy Davis Jr. joke in here somewhere.