Grolsch has introduced a new character in its advertising, police officer Journt, “the most notorious police officer in the Netherlands,” who never says a word. The Amsterdam beer brand has rolled out a new ‘silent’ campaign in the UK on its official page at www.grolsch.com.uk and invited the audience to get involved into the activity for a chance to get four pack of Grolsch beer.

While the Stella Artois lager brand is celebrating cinema spirit with its promotional initiatives ahead of the Cannes Film Festival, Grolsch has stepped into the art-house filmmaking world with its Grolsch Film Works production platform, doing its part in supporting independent movies. The Dutch beer brand, which launched the platform back in April 2011, last fall announced that a new film, which was to merge creative visions of three directors (from Russia, Poland and the USA) went under production. The new experimental film titled ‘The Fourth Dimension,’ funded by Grolsch and created in partnership with Vice Films, finally premiered last weekend at the San Francisco International Film Festival.

Grolsch and CARTILS have revealed the new graphic design for all bottles, cans and other packaging for the iconic Grolsch brand. The design will be introduced into the Dutch market this week. The new packaging will be hitting the store shelves worldwide beginning March. SABMiller teamed up with CARTILS, the well-known international branding and packaging design consultancy, in order to give the brand a more prominent look and feel. The primary focus was on the creation of a consistent worldwide visual identity, which emphasises the brand values as well as increasing the standout factor.

In the world of beer brands, Stella Artois and Grolsch are recognized cinema addicts. While the first of them provides a retrospective look at the history of cinematograph with its numerous projects and hilarious retro-style campaign as well as pays tribute to the recent accomplishments in the industry by supporting the Cannes Film Festival, the second one, which also celebrates the legendary movies through its Grolsch & LWLies Presents club, from now on is mainly focused on the future. The iconic Dutch beer brand is now sponsoring the 54th San Francisco International Film Festival (SFIFF) and also presents a new program dubbed ‘Grolsch Film Works’ to give a hand to emerging cinema talents.

The story of close relationship between brands and cinematography started nearly at the same time as the cinema itself was born—in the beginning of the  movie era, the big companies promoted their products though short clips which were screened before movies. Now it’s not that easy to tell for sure for which product the pioneer ad was created, but according to a range of sources (IMDB is one of them), the first filmed advertising for a today’s global brand was shot for Dewar’s Scotch Whisky (1897). Today, connections between filmmaking industry and brands go beyond this simple presence and include a lot of examples such as much discussed product placement, festival sponsorship and opening cinema clubs, cinema-related advertising campaigns, collaboration with filmmakers on commercials, and creating movies under brands’ supervision.