Remember the movie Lost in Translation?  Bill Murray plays aging American actor (and famous person) Bob Harris, stuck in Japan to do an ad for Suntory whiskey.

Well, replace the fictional famous person Bob Harris with nonfictional and aging Houston Rockets Star Tracy McGrady, and you’ve got the same basic setup here.

Sedrin (or Xeujin) beer — the “official beer of the NBA” in China — gets the Lost in Translation treatment, complete with McGrady drinking what we’re sure is a mediocre Budweiser substitute after falling into a physics-defying trap set up by some local Chinese youth.

One good thing macrobrewers have done with their monstrous marketing budgets is create some very memorable and enjoyable advertising.  But over the years, the ads haven’t been quite as slick.  We pulled together 15 retro beer advertisements into this gallery to take a look back on what used to be.

Flickr user Roadsidepictures has assembled a fantastic collection of “old” advertising, a lot of which contains vintage beer ads and package designs.  It’s great to look back at some of this stuff, which makes you remember just how narrow beer choices have been for decades.  Almost everything there is some type of light American lager, a history written by Pabst, Coors, and Budweiser.

I also couldn’t help but think that if I were starting a microbrewery today, I’d seriously consider reviving and old brand instead of trying to come up with a clever brewery name.  I know Buckeye Beer in Ohio has worked to do just that, but the flagship product is unfortunately sub-par and tastes like it probably did in 1972.

Below are a few of my personal favorites, but you can check out all the beer-related photos right here.

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