By Madame de Wyn 
Carling Black Label, a beer steeped in history. The origins of this famous beer lie in Canada, where it was first brewed in the 1920’s by the Carling brewery. The beer was originally known as Black & White Lager until a 1927 rebrand where the name was changed to Carling Black Label. The brewery was later merged into Canadian Breweries Limited and this allowed the brand to be promoted worldwide.
Carling Black Label first hit the shores of South Africa in 1966. The beer brand’s advertising focussed on hard work and masculinity. Its first ad campaign kicked off with a cowboy theme, where the cowboy represented a hero who deserved a cold Carling Black Label as a reward for a long day’s work. But long before the “One nation, one goal, one beer, one soul” campaign, a lady called Mabel got labeled as the iconic poster pin-up, inspiring both the beer brand’s identity and its advertising campaigns with her timeless charisma and flirtatious grace.
Who was Mabel, from Black Label?
While those closest to its creation agree on the facts behind “Mabel, Black Label,” numerous colorful stories circulate about its origins. The most popular tale recounts a young copywriter at Lang, Fisher & Stashower who, after returning from lunch in a drunken state, was quickly dismissed by his superiors. Interestingly, after he left, a piece of paper with the phrase “Mabel, Black Label” was found still in his typewriter, leading to the perception that he had inadvertently created the slogan. The brilliance of the phrase was immediately recognized, yet the young copywriter mysteriously vanished afterward, fueling the legend surrounding its inception.
An intriguing account suggests that Carling management initially dismissed the “Mabel, Black Label” slogan as unworthy, rejecting it before any advertising efforts. Legend has it that Al Fisher, co-founder of Lang, Fisher & Stashower, believed in the slogan’s potential so strongly that he created a radio commercial featuring it and, without his client’s approval, aired it in a small Ohio town to test its effectiveness. The result was a remarkable spike in beer sales in that town, convincingly demonstrating the slogan’s power and leading Carling officials to embrace it wholeheartedly.
In 1965, New York-based Tinker & Associates became Carling’s new national advertising agency, leading to Mabel’s sudden disappearance from all Black Label ads. After experiencing sluggish sales in the late 1960s, Carling turned to Mabel once more to revitalize their brand, culminating in her dramatic return on December 2, 1970, during a wholesalers’ meeting in Washington, D.C., where a young, blond model burst through a paper bullseye, symbolizing Mabel’s comeback, and was greeted with roses by Carling executive Bob Thomas.
Unfortunately, Carling’s troubles were too great for even Mabel to cure. She soon disappeared from television sets and magazine ads, never again to deliver her famous wink.
