They couldn't use the Bear today. The very sigh of him would force children and other weak-minded sorts to drink beer, usually against their will.

Oh, I'm just exaggerating. By the way: "In 2002, to commemorate the bear's 50th anniversary, a St. Paul, Minnesota-based group of Hamm's memorabilia collectors called the Hamm's Club proposed erecting a six-foot granite statue of the bear. The monument would stand near a waterfall named for William Hamm, a former company president, in Como Park, and would not mention the word "beer," but the City Council declined the offer in 2003, in part because the original location which was near a playground."

The matchbook refers specifically to the commercial: