Anyone who’s spent time in the trenches of advertising knows how difficult it is to get clients to spend money. The idea could be amazing, but if it hinges on something a little spendy, it’s probably going to die. (A better fate than being done on the cheap, IMO. -Ed.) But at one point in the 90s, an ad agency actually managed to sell its beer client on paying for a fighter jet.

We are, of course, talking about the Miller Genuine Draft Saab Draken.

The year was 1992, you see, and soon-to-be legend Bobby Rahal had signed on to drive the number 12 Miller Genuine Draft Chevrolet in the CART series. Although it’s been gone for over 20 years at this point, CART was at one point a very big deal in American racing, the late 80s/early 90s included. So naturally, if the Miller Brewing Company was going to shell out the money to sponsor a car and sign Rahal, they wanted people to know it.

That’s where Minneapolis-based Fallon McElligott (now known as Fallon) came in. The TV ad, titled Thunder Run, was part of a series spots for MGD featuring Rahal—or at least the number 12 car—but it was definitely the only one featuring an actual fighter jet.

And what a fighter jet it was. Initial development on the Draken started in the late 1940s if you can believe it. At a time when American and Soviet jet fighters were either variations on straight-winged propeller-driven designs or just straight up copies of stuff the Germans had been working on, the Swedes were onto something decades ahead of everything else. (You should definitely click on that link. -Ed.) Even its wing design—a kind of double-delta known as a cranked arrow—wouldn’t be seen in Western aviation until the F-16XL of the early 80s.

As it turns out, Bobby Rahal drove the MGD Chevy all the way to the 1992 CART championship. Miller’s CMO was no doubt delighted he could defend having spent all that money, and Fallon held onto the account for another year. That wasn’t the only time 1990s advertising crossed paths with a military jet, however. It's a tale of the nation's number two cola brand, an A/V-8 Harrier, and how being too clever can land you in Federal Court.

But that’s a story for another time.