Rainier: A Beer Odyssey

In the heart of Seattle, the shadow of Mount Rainier, and its namesake, Rainier Beer, loom large. First brewed in Seattle in 1878, before Washington was even a state, Rainier stands as one of the most successful regional beer brands in the nation.Through the decades, their marketing strategies closely paralleled what was going on in the greater beer universe. Predictable campaigns which lived up to shifting American norms.That all changed in 1974.

Gordon Bowker, one of the three original founders of Starbucks, teamed up with Terry Heckler, the budding brand and marketing wizard, to create Heckler/Bowker, a small boutique ad agency. Rainier Beer, experiencing an early 70s brand imaging crisis, decided to take a chance on the young upstarts and commissioned them to craft a new campaign with an
emphasis on television. It paid off. Thanks to the new approach by Heckler/Bowker, Rainier quickly became the best selling beer in the state, surpassing even national giants like Miller and Budweiser. The new TV ads, cutting edge in their simplicity and contrarian attitude to accepted advertising practices, immediately captured the imaginations of the entire region. They were quirky, zany, yet dry and underplayed. They mocked themselves. They pulled the curtain back to reveal their own stagecraft. No one who witnessed these groundbreaking ads during their original 12 year run has ever forgotten them.

Original motion picture outtakes, rediscovered after 25 years and lovingly restored to their original cinematic glory, reveal a quality never experienced on television screens. It’s as if each of these iconic ads were conceived of as mere scenes in a greater, hitherto unseen epic. At long last, the full picture is revealed.

For the very first time, the technicians, artists, writers, and craftspeople tell the true story of the most legendary ad campaign in the state of Washington, which not only redefined and revitalized Rainier Beer, but left an indelible mark on the national advertising landscape and has come to define the very sensibility of The Northwest itself, now more than ever.