Whisky in Screen Advertising: From Early Cinema to Television

Whisky advertising has appeared on screens for almost as long as moving pictures have existed. Its history includes an outdoor projection above a New York street, an idea that travelled from print to film and television, and a voluntary American broadcast ban that lasted decades. Later campaigns used longer films and recurring slogans, while television advertising remained subject to different rules in different countries.

An animated billboard in New York

Dewar’s says it commissioned “the first moving picture advertisement for a drinks product” in 1897. According to the producer’s account, the film was projected on the roof of the Pepper building in Herald Square, New York, where it stopped traffic. That rooftop showing is a detail to attribute to Dewar’s: independent documentation of it has not been established in the supplied evidence. [1]

The film itself was not made for a cinema audience. Alphaville describes early advertising films being projected onto improvised screens over busy crossroads, in effect creating animated billboards. It calls Dewar’s Scotch Whisky the oldest acknowledged film advertisement still in existence. Dates for films of this period are estimates based on film stock analysis and contextual evidence. [2]

In the surviving advertisement, a kilted Scotsman dances a semblance of a Highland Fling, while a banner displays the Dewar’s name. The film was produced by the International Film Company, a short lived venture formed by two former Edison employees. Movies Silently says the company was founded in 1896 and left the industry by 1898, after Edison targeted it in late 1897. [2][5]

The names attached to the company are not entirely settled in the supplied sources. Alphaville’s references credit Charles Webster and Edmund Kuhn, whereas Movies Silently names James Webster and Edmund Kuhn as the founders. The evidence does not reliably establish the director’s credit, so the company attribution is safer than assigning the film to either Webster. [2][5]

There are ways to trace the film today without assuming that every archive describes it identically. Movies Silently says it streams courtesy of the National Library of Scotland. The University of Iowa Libraries also list a 16mm copy of Dewar’s Scotch Whiskey on Early Cinema Reel III, under call number Motion Picture 16113. [4][5]

Ancestors step out of their frames

Another Dewar’s idea moved between media. In an 1896 print advertisement, kilted ancestors reach out of their portrait frames for a glass. Around 1900, The Spirit of His Forefathers, made for Dewar’s with British Mutoscope and Biograph, showed Scottish figures climbing down from portraits to sample whisky. The exact year of the film is not reliably established on the evidence available here. [2][5]

The BFI calls The Spirit of His Forefathers “One of the earliest surviving British adverts”. It describes the film as the second surviving film example of the ancestors from portraits idea, following a 1897 American production. The idea returned to television in 1977, when The Spirit of His Forefathers reappeared in a Dewar’s commercial titled The Whisky of His Ancestors. [3]

The distinction between American and British production matters. The 1897 Dewar’s dancing film should not simply be called the oldest British advertisement: it was an American production. Alphaville also records archivist Elaine Burrows’s view that a Vinolia Soap advertisement, dated about 1897, was the earliest surviving British advert. [2][3]

A voluntary American broadcast ban

The American spirits industry adopted its Code of Responsible Practices on 27 October 1934, months after the repeal of Prohibition. The code changed over time. A provision in 1936 barred the use of women in advertising, for example, and was modified in 1958. The industry’s voluntary ban on liquor advertising applied to radio from 1936 and television from 1948. [7][8]

That history corrects a common misunderstanding: spirits advertisements were not illegal on American television simply because the industry had a broadcast ban. The ban was voluntary, set by distillers themselves. In 1996, a Crown Royal spot became a test of the arrangement, which the Los Angeles Times described as a “48-year-old” voluntary code. [6][7]

On 20 March 1996, the spot aired on Prime Sports during the Crown Royal Special Reserve Grand Prix of Palm Beach. It showed one dog with the caption “Obedience school graduate” and a second dog carrying a purple Crown Royal pouch with the caption “Valedictorian”. Seagram called the spot a “message” during a sponsored event, rather than a commercial. [6]

In May 1996, Seagram said it had no plans to air further television commercials. By November, it had run commercials for several brands in scattered markets. A Chivas Regal Scotch whisky commercial ran on a Rockland County, New York, cable channel the night before the industry voted on its broadcast ban. [6][7]

On 7 November 1996, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States voted to end the voluntary radio and television ban. The council also records 1996 as the year its code was changed to permit those advertisements. Ending the industry ban did not mean whisky ads immediately appeared on the major broadcast networks: all four said they would retain their own rules against spirits advertising. [7][8]

The change was contested. Representative Joseph Kennedy II proposed making the voluntary ban law, while George Hacker of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said ending it declared “open season on kids”. The commercial effect of the ban was disputed too. Beverage Bulletin publisher Dan Bolton said some in the industry blamed it for spirits’ losses but opposed lifting it; council chief Fred Meister called the beer and wine exemption discriminatory. The Los Angeles Times reported that US liquor consumption had fallen 40% from its 1979 peak. [6][7]

Different television rules

In the UK, the BCAP Code defines alcoholic drinks for section 19 as those above 0.5% alcohol. The code says alcohol advertisements must not be targeted at people under 18 or imply, condone or encourage immoderate drinking. Its television rules begin with a prohibition on alcohol advertisements likely to appeal strongly to under 18s. Whisky can therefore be advertised on UK television, subject to the applicable rules. [9]

France provides a different example, but not a blanket ban on every form of alcohol advertising. In its 2004 legal commentary, Osborne Clarke described the Loi Evin as effectively banning direct or indirect television advertising for drinks above 1.2% alcohol. It also noted a 1995 code of conduct covering alcohol branding visible in television coverage of overseas sports events. The European Court of Justice accepted the television ban in 2004 as justified to protect public health. This historical account is based on commentary, not a check of current French law. [10]

Keep walking and a longer film

By the end of the 1990s, Johnnie Walker had a different advertising challenge. Campaign UK reports that volume sales fell 14% in the three years before 1999. Bartle Bogle Hegarty developed the “Keep walking” campaign, which went on to win the Grand Prix at the 2008 IPA Effectiveness Awards. [12]

The phrase also travelled beyond an advertisement. After Rafic Hariri’s assassination in 2005, people in Lebanon carried homemade “Keep walking” banners, according to Campaign UK. That episode shows the slogan being taken up in a setting distinct from the campaign’s original commercial purpose, without requiring a claim about how every audience understood it. [12]

In 2009, BBH London made The Man Who Walked Around the World, a six minute Johnnie Walker film starring Robert Carlyle. It opens with a lone bagpiper and mist across the Highlands. Carlyle then breaks the mood with his first line: “Shut it!” The supplied evidence establishes the film and its opening, but not which broadcast channels showed it. [11]

From an outdoor projection to a six minute film, these examples show several ways whisky brands have used moving images. They also show why the medium, the place and the date matter: a surviving film, a television commercial and a voluntary broadcast code each tell a different part of the story.

Sources

1. Dewar’s, producer’s account. Dewar’s in America: A Story of Two Nations. Checked November 2026.
2. Steven Foxon, Alphaville: Journal of Film and Screen Media, no. 25, 2023. Commercial Break: British Advertising on Screen. Checked November 2026.
3. BFI Replay, BFI National Archive. The Spirit of His Forefathers. Checked November 2026.
4. University of Iowa Libraries. Big Ten 16mm Film Collection: 16mm Films, by Title. Checked November 2026.
5. Movies Silently, 1 March 2026. Dewar’s Scotch Whiskey (1897) A Silent Film Review. Checked November 2026.
6. Los Angeles Times, 1 May 1996. Seagram Bucks Voluntary Ban on TV Advertising With Spot on Cable. Checked November 2026.
7. Tampa Bay Times, 8 November 1996. Liquor ad ban rescinded. Checked November 2026.
8. Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. Distilled Spirits Council Celebrates 85th Anniversary of Code of Responsible Practices. Checked November 2026.
9. Advertising Standards Authority. The BCAP Code, Section 19: Alcohol. Checked November 2026.
10. Nick Johnson, Osborne Clarke, marketinglaw, 23 June 2004. ECJ clears France’s Loi Evin. Checked November 2026.
11. O’Reilly, How 30 Great Ads Were Made. Johnnie Walker: The Man Who Walked Around The World. Checked November 2026.
12. Steve Mustarde, Campaign UK, 17 November 2008. Close-Up: Live issue, Johnnie Walker: the story behind ‘Keep walking’. Checked November 2026.