Life — March 27, 1913 — page 11: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

# "The Lay of the Lonesome Lodger" — Johnnie Walker Whisky Advertisement This is a Johnnie Walker whisky advertisement disguised as humorous verse. The "lay" (poem) tells of "Poor Thompson," a lonely boarding-house resident whose sole comfort is anticipating whisky at home. The joke: Thompson's bottle has been tampered with—the contents evaporated or were replaced with water, leaving only the label's promise. The satire targets Prohibition-era substitution fraud. During Prohibition, legitimate bottles were often refilled with inferior products. The ad promotes Johnnie Walker's "Protective Bottle" with a tamper-proof stopper, claiming it prevents adulteration. The caricatured "old Johnnie Walker" character appears at bottom, hawking the Red and Black Label varieties as reliable solutions to contamination problems consumers actually faced.