INFO
Heerlijk Helder Heineken!: Visite (Cool clear Heineken! Visit)
Joop Geesink
1958-1968
Animated film
30 sec.
Heineken in Dollywood
‘Cool, clear Heineken! Another Sunday without sun. / In the beginning it was fun,/ but how quickly you run out of things to say/ with no beer on the table to make your day!’ Cheerful tunes accompany the stop-motion films by movie producer Joop Geesink in the early 1960s.
The commercials feature dolls handmade by employees of Geesink’s Dollywood studio in Amsterdam. As early as 1955, for Heineken, Geesink produced Makers of history, an English advertising film about astronauts taking Heineken with them in their rocket to the moon. Upon arriving, they hand over crates of beer to ‘Papa Moon,’ who tells the astonished space travellers that Heineken is already known there.
The first television commercial
This early Heineken commercial ending with the slogan Heineken. Wherever good beer is appreciated, was aired in various languages as foreign cinema advertising. Soon thereafter, the Dollywood studio launched the series of television commercials centred around the slogan Cool, clear Heineken. Unfortunately, the very first commercials only aired on Dutch television in 1967, by which time the promotion of alcoholic beverages was forbidden. People already knew the alliterated jingle Heerlijk Helder Heineken (Cool, clear Heineken), which resounded through stadiums during soccer matches.
Ready to use
When the Advertising Council nevertheless greenlighted alcohol advertising for the following year, the Heineken films were ready to use. Immediately on New Year’s Day 1968, Dutch people watched the episode Visite[MB16.1] (Visit) on the telly in black and white. ‘There’s a ring at the door, quick go see / you’re in the best of spirits / there’s instant good cheer, with Heineken that never fails….’
A state of good cheer for men and women was how Heineken profiled itself once and for all among home consumers. In later advertisements too, human connection remained a recurring theme at home, all over the world, and even in outer space.