{ feuilleton }

Budweiser advertising art, 1906.

Hard to believe that the self-styled King of Beers used to advertise itself using a gay episode from Classical mythology but here’s the evidence. Zeus falls in love with the beautiful youth and, in the form of an eagle, bears him away to Mount Olympus. In some depictions this event is called The Rape of Ganymede which suggests there was some other “mounting” taking place as a result; maybe the eagle had drunk one too many beers?

Budweiser advertising art, 1892.

Elsewhere on { feuilleton }
• The gay artists archive