As anyone who knows me will be happy to tell you, I am fascinated — nay, obsessed — with beer. So it should come as no surprise that my interest is particularly piqued whenever the subject of beer meets the subject of marketing. Two great loves, right? Unfortunately, this interest usually results in disappointment from the rather lackluster marketing in which most modern brewers engage.

I was, however, recently introduced to a beer marketing campaign from the 1940s and '50s that has got me more excited than usual. After World War II, the United States Brewers Foundation (USBF), worried about a possible return to prohibition (or at least prohibitionist-inspired legislation), undertook a groundbreaking campaign to make beer a beloved national pastime. Over the course of about 10 years, the USBF created 120 ads placing beer directly in the middle of scenes of an idealized American life. The illustrations are by artists such as Douglass Crockwell, Stevan Dohanos, and John Falter — all of whom did covers for the Saturday Evening Post -- and even Haddon Sundblom, the illustrator responsible for the legendary Coca-Cola Santa Claus.

This campaign — a triumph of category marketing — may help to explain why, even today, beer continues to beat out wine and other liquor as Americans' alcoholic beverage of choice according to a recent Gallup Poll. I've picked a few of my favorites to display below, and all 120 ads can be found on Jay Brooks's fantastic Flickr feed.