Chess - a Hard Sell
Chess in Advertising Although Chess isn't a common theme in advertising, the practice goes back at least a century and a half when Kaichen & Rothschild usurped Morphy's image to sell their cigars (made of the finest Cuban yara tobacco).
While the media still tend to portray chess players as peculiar, anti-social recluses, the Advertisement field, which seems to know more about human nature than almost anyone, uses Chess to convey the idea of discriminating taste and savoir-faire - that is, Quality.
Perhaps that the truer conception that the general public holds of Chess and it's disciples .
Throughout the years, Ads using a Chess theme have covered many products-
Tobacco:
in addition to the Morphy ad above, Old Gold cigarettes used a chess theme
Then there's Automobiles:
Opel Vectra
Renault
Alcoholic Beverages:
Highland Queen
Hunter
Miller Beer
Old Grand-Dad
Red Cap Ale
Soft Drinks:
Coke
Pepsi
Perfumes/Colognes:
Tocadilly Perfume
Seguin Acqua di Colonia
High Tech:
Douglas Aircraft
En Tel of Argentina
Navi-Sys
Food:
Stouffer's Dinners
Miscellaneous:
Anti-Drug Advertisement
Kromekote Paper Products