Ted Williams and Moxie

“Make Mine Moxie,” declares the advertisement featuring Boston Red Sox player Ted Williams. With a bat resting on his shoulder and a bottle beside him, Williams lends a familiar sporting face to a distinctly New England beverage. Preserved as a museum display in Easton, the image connects baseball, advertising, and the history of an unusual soft drink.

Moxie began with Augustin Thompson, a physician born in Union, Maine, who developed the product in Lowell, Massachusetts. Originally promoted as “Moxie Nerve Food,” it belonged to an era when proprietary remedies were advertised with sweeping claims about their benefits. By the mid-1880s, it had developed into a carbonated beverage and became one of the country’s early mass-marketed soft drinks.

Its flavor set it apart. Gentian root extract contributed a characteristic bitterness alongside its sweetness. That distinctive taste became part of Moxie’s identity, giving consumers a recognizable alternative within the growing soft-drink market.

Advertising helped turn the beverage into a widely recognized name. Moxie’s promotional efforts included songs, unusual vehicles, bottle-shaped structures, and celebrity endorsements. Williams was among the personalities associated with the brand, connecting the drink with a sports figure especially familiar to New England audiences.

The display presents that connection through a simple visual arrangement. Williams appears in his Boston uniform, his name printed above him, while the bottle occupies its own prominent space. The short slogan makes the endorsement personal and easy to remember. Baseball and beverage are brought together in an image designed to be understood at a glance.

Moxie’s regional significance continued long after its earliest advertising campaigns. In 2005, Maine designated it the official state soft drink, recognizing a product associated with a Maine-born inventor and a lasting New England following.

This advertisement preserves a chapter of consumer history in which familiar public figures helped sell everyday products. It also records the close association between regional identity and commercial imagery: a Boston baseball player promoting a beverage whose roots reach into both Massachusetts and Maine.