In 1907, the Pilsener Brewing Company began using the monogram "P.O.C." as a slogan for its Extra Pilsener Beer, thus initiating what would become the company's keynote for most of its history. By mid-1914, P.O.C. had graduated from slogan to full-fledged brand name, taking its place at the head of the Pilsener line of beers.vii The running theme of P.O.C. Beer was the mystery of what the letters meant. Baited with few clues, the consumer was left to his own imagination for the answer. A "P.O.C. Guessing Contest" was even promoted by the company at one point, the premise of which was to guess the meaning of the P.O.C. letters. Such gimmicks were designed only to bolster the public's curiosity and ended in no clear revelation of P.O.C.'s true meaning. Throughout the brand's long duration, the originally intended meaning of the P.O.C. initials was deliberately obscure.
At least one interpretation of P.O.C. - "Pride Of Cleveland" - gained enough favor over the years to become almost common knowledge. Indeed, writers for the Western Brewer trade journal had submitted this phrase as their official guess already in 1915. Although some P.O.C. advertising of the 1930s carried "Pride Of Cleveland" as a slogan, it was presumably used only in response to the popularity of the phrase. After all, the brewery plugged many expressions into the P.O.C. initials over the years, such as "Pleasure Of Course" or "Pilsener On Call." Ironically, as late as the 1950s, the Pilsener Brewing Company itself could only speculate as to the original meaning behind the P.O.C. letters. A television commercial which aired during that decade stated, "History records are not complete on this subject, but it is thought that they originally represented 'Pilsener Of Cleveland.'"viii Certainly the creators of P.O.C. had little idea that the mystery would live to baffle even the company itself!
