Smiths Pork Crackling Flavour Potato Crisps - Beer Mat

The historically strong relationship between the snack industry and the pub business is something that we don't see much of any longer.

These days we don't associate snack advertising with the pub. After all, there are no real adverts in the pub apart from the drip towel you find on the bar and the beer mats. These only ever seem to promote a beer brand or perhaps a new soft drink that's available, like J20.

Snacks and Beer

Back in the day, when I was young, some brands of crisps and nuts seemed to only be found in the pub. Walkers Crisps were a pub crisp brand. I never knew of or had dry roasted peanuts at home. You never saw pork scratchings in the supermarket. It was like there actually was a specific reason to go to the pub, it was because the snacks were different.

As a kid, we always asked for a bag of crisps with our glass of lemonade. Sometimes the bag was much bigger than the ones we got from the supermarket multipack. The sun was shining, we were outside sitting on a bench with our BMX resting against the table. The difference between lemonade and crisps that were eaten at home and the same things eaten in the pub seemed massive.

Beer Mats in the Pub

Back in the 1970s and 80s, beer mats were everywhere in the pub. Every table, every bar, every windowsill, almost every available surface had a beer mat on it. The beer mats were always clean and fresh, you never saw a soggy one.

They are much rarer these days.

Today, no beer mat is safe from the twitchy knee bobbing drinker. You know the guy. Picking at the corner of the beer mat, scratching the wet bits, then peeling the foil from the top of the bottle. He's generally making a bloody mess. He's not relaxed, not listening, because no one these days can relax for 5 flipping minutes. The mobile phone and everything on-demand has ruined the pub, for the friend of a pub twitcher. Their anxiety can only rub off onto their friends and make the night out less relaxing for all.

Collecting Beer Mats

And as kids, we collected them. Everyone I Kew had a few. I have 100s somewhere in the loft. My dad had a small pile of foreign beer mats in the drinks cabinet. He didn't really collect them, but these beer mats did help grow my very own collection.

Smiths Pork Crackling Flavour Potato Crisps - Beer Mat Found on eBay

I found the beer mat below whilst wandering around eBay.

Smiths Pork Crackling Flavour Potato Crisps

As you may have seen, I spotted an empty bag of Smiths Pork Crackling Flavour Potato Crisps on ebay recently. The exact product that the above beer mat is advertising!

Click here to see the post: https://hairybarsnacks.com/crisps/vintage-smiths-crisps-pork-crackling-flavour-potato-crisps/