Ballantine: Klondike Pete

Brewers Gold: A Golden Catch.

This commercial is set in the Wild West in a saloon. Every one is raving about Ballantine's Beer - The Brewers Gold.

It has previously been described on this website that Joop Geesink had an amazing talent for making the most of tried and tested, successful themes. In current advertisements it is common to repeat success formulas, but in the 1950s this was new. Very recognisable is the slogan ‘Make the Three Ring Sign’, complete with hand gesture. The film below is just one from the series. Each film praises beer in a limerick-like manner. Each one is a beautiful puppet animation where the creative registers of the studio were pulled out.

USA

Joop Geesink travelled all over the world to acquire clients. In the USA, Geesink had found a good partner in salesman and creative mind Joe (Joseph) Forrest, who with his Transfilm offered excellent agency for Dollywood's American clients. It is certainly not out of the question that Forrest had a significant influence in the creation of this series of commissions, although this is nowhere documented.

Co-brand

For Geesink, it was a nice touch that Ballantine's Beer was sold under the brand ‘Double-L’ (Light Lager) in certain parts of the United States. The label read ‘LL’.
For the studio, this meant that numerous films were re-filmed in large parts because the logo was part of the set. The relevant shots were re-filmed for the other brand. A modified sung jingle and new packshot at the end made for a totally new film reel. This made for a hefty extra turnover.

The film we show here, with the limmerick-like song was a concept developed specifically for ‘Brewers Gold’ beer. The normal Ballantine beer brand as well as The Double-L version had its own puppet film concept. This set one brand apart from the other.

Dit handgebaar, mét knipoog, werd door het publiek geadopteerd: "Make the three-O sign!"

Trivia

The film was shot entirely in stop-motion, with only the packshot of the beer glass being poured full being shot as live action. Moreover, at this time, it was a trend to have the beer foam flowing over the rim of the glass. For the audience, it was amazing that the animated puppet came into view simultaneously with the glass of flowing beer. People hardly realised at the time that this was a double take.

Long Film list

Before showing the film below, first a list of the wide variety of titles for this client (ca. 1953 - 1958). Just by reading the titles, one can discover how great the diversity is. Realise here that the average turnaround time for one film was up to 6 months. For series like this, multiple production teams often worked on multiple titles.