“We never pasteurize our beer,” says Camden Town Brewery about its Hells Lager. Yet, the company admits that the unthinkable has happened: 50 of the brand’s beers have been “accidentally” pasteurized, the brewery distributing them across the UK via its Hells Lager four-can packs.

An “honest” mistake that Camden wants to fix. So, in order to publicly apologize to the beer drinkers for doing exactly what they promised they would never do, the company organized a press conference where it announced “the world’s first positive beer recall.” The announcement is part of a Wieden+Kennedy campaign, in which the company looks to educate consumers that pasteurizing, which means heating beer, is the biggest mistake they could ever make.

According to the press conference, which materialized in the form of a short video using animation within the Camden world, consumers who come across one of the 50 pasteurized beers will be compensated with a “YEAR’S SUPPLY OF FRESH-TASTING, NEVER PASTEURISED, HELLS LAGER.” Running over four weeks, the new national campaign, which first aired on May 20^th during Channel 4 News at 7 pm, aims to reproduce the announcement of a real beer recall.

Directed by James Papper and featuring illustration from Vivienne Shao, the ad follows the format of a breaking news statement from the brewery and focuses on three spokespeople part of the Camden’s Beer Team. The lead character, voiced by Lolly Adefope, is the one who announces a voluntary recall of a small batch of Hells Lager, which has been unwittingly pasteurized. The “unlucky” consumers who find one of these cans in the four-packs are kindly asked not to drink it and call Camden Hells Lager’s specially developed “ALWAYS-FRESH-BUT-NOT-THIS-TIME” hotline instead. A simple call to the recall team will compensate them with a year’s supply of never pasteurized Hells Lager.

“For our first national TV campaign, it was important that the creative strategy and design of the advert represented not only our passion for fresh, never pasteurized beer but also the Camden brand world and our love of design and illustration,” said Zoe Wulfsohn-Dunkley, Head of Brand Marketing of Camden Town Brewery. She continues: “The ad has been directed by James Papper and illustrated by Vivienne Shao, and we’re so happy with how we’ve watched the creative come to life in this animated Camden beer world. We wanted to approach everything about this campaign in a fresh way, including the media, so securing a spot in the Channel 4 News gave us a great opportunity to land our creative idea in a relevant context.”

Tom Bender and Tom Corcoran, Creative Directors at Wieden+Kennedy, added: “The lager market has had the same big players for decades. Camden has not been brewed since 1774 and, thanks to that, there is a freedom to change what a beer brand stands for. The collaboration formula we have found means Camden acts as a platform for young creative talent and allows us to maintain the consistency a growing brand needs but always stay fresh and original at the same time.”

W+K worked with Bountiful Cow (comms planning and media) and W Communications leading on PR to help the brand express its love for design and illustration. Commenting on the initiative, Ian Daly, Head of AV at Bountiful Cow, said: “We’re proud to be able to bring this campaign to life in a way that is fresh as hells… starting by interrupting The News! Rather than play it safe, we have tried our best to grab attention, stand out and be brave with our media buy. Viewers should look out for the urgent Camden announcement in select, impactful TV moments across the summer, some of which may be unexpected… cheers to doing things differently!”

Camden’s error of distributing 50 pasteurized cans across the country is to let people know that pasteurization affects the freshness of Hells Lager and that the brewery will do everything possible to ensure its beers have a fresh taste. Meanwhile, warning stickers to “look just as terrible as they taste” were added to the pasteurized cans so that consumers can differentiate them from the good ones.

Credits:

Client: Camden Town Brewery

Agency: Wieden+Kennedy London