"The Saga of Box Beer" CCA Comedy

Transcript (Download)

The saga of Box Bear is one of the truly revered legends of our great industry.

Who would imagine today that it all began on a scorched desert floor where heat, exhaustion, and unbearable thirst threatened to ring the curtain down on yet another hapless victim.

But the curtain was going up for this man, not down.

An oasis emerged suddenly, an oasis complete with the promise of relief for burning thirst.

A promise that quickly dissipated into the wretched sand.

And there was no more to take its place.

Here that indomitable spirit that we have all come to know and respect took command and turned adversity into triumph.

Triumph that had to be shared to be realized.

As incredible as it must seem today, this is how the world -famous Box Bear sand filtration was discovered.

Then and there a pact was made, a clear breakthrough to the world.

On this historic spot, our founding fathers dedicated themselves to the relentless pursuit of perfection in the brewing art.

Some of the most auspicious developments have had modest beginnings.

So it was at Alamogordo, so it was in this modest establishment.

The formula for Box Bear, even in the relatively crude environment of its inception, was as precisely and scientifically controlled as the consummate skill of the master brewer could make it.

No expense was spared in obtaining the finest Washington hops, Chinatown rice, and Georgia grits.

Brewing heat was controlled within minute tolerances.

And of course, box cleanliness was observed even then.

Together our founders worked their special magic into their pilot brew, mixing, matching, sampling, and meticulously timing and aging each batch.

Even that first Box Bear packaging line expressed its own kind of automated perfection.

Line speed was precisely variable to match production output.

The unique secret of sand filtration was carefully worked into the filling flow so that each precious drop of liquid received its full benefit from contact with those minute desert diamonds.

Pure water, that vital ingredient of beer, normally in acutely short supply in the desert, was produced by an ingenious adaptation of modern science to an unlikely locale.

Often in those days, the process got somewhat out of bounds, but the partners persevered and soon there was enough Box Bear to begin distribution.

The course they took in defining their market, evolving their strategy, and channeling their distribution became a textbook example of modern marketing science in action.

The first employee of this fledgling enterprise was that master of mass persuasion, the advertising man.

Media were selected with great care to assure maximum penetration in each segment of the beer drinking market.

Advertisements were designed to tailor the box message to the precise measure of every segment of the consuming public.

Each advertising area has its own special problems and its own special opportunities.

The Box Bear attitude has always been to keep abreast of what the best of our competition is doing and improve upon it.

Much of the credit for the early success of Box Bear must go to the efforts of our first sales representatives.

From the beginning, theirs has been a special breed.

Knowledgeable, resolute, resourceful.

Box men all the way.

Ultimately, it is in the marketplace that the beach heads are established and the competitive battles are won and lost.

Box Bear's first battle in the marketplace, as with any new product, was for shelf space.

Space securely held by established competing brands.

It is axiomatic, however, that space can always be made available for the superior product.

Such are the rules of the game in our system of free enterprise.

A system that the makers of Box Bear have always supported day and night.

With marketing, advertising, and selling jobs done, and done well, the returns began to come in for Box Bear in a big way.

To say that they were beyond our ability to contribute both to their ingenuity and to their innate modesty.

As one of them so succinctly put it at the time, you just can't keep a good beer down.

To cope with burgeoning demand, new, larger facilities were required.

And this expansionist pace has continued unabated.

Today, the home of Box Bear is an industry showplace where the technological marvels of continuous production are watched over with the same meticulous personalized care that prevailed in Box's original one room plan.

But the practice of brewing wizardry on such a mammoth scale needs something beyond technological marvels.

It needs the ministrations of special people, each with his own brand of dedicated expertise.

Financial well -being, for example, must be seen too by a man who never guesses, never assumes.

And a man concerned not with price for its own sake, but with true value in every item purchased.

Every progressive brewer needs a man to think and dream.

A man inherently attuned to the big picture.

Expeditious routing of output depends on precise knowledge of destinations and their myriad approaches.

But the effectiveness of all of these experts would go for naught without absolute integrity of product quality.

To the makers of Box Bear, a million dollar taste computer is a small investment indeed for the assurance of this integrity.

We never forget that although we distribute Box Bear by the millions of barrels, it is consumed by the personal mouthful.

And the intimate taste of each mouthful must match exactly the sublime sand nurtured bouquet of that first revealing taste of Box so long ago.

Sophisticated electronic circuitry is highly capable certainly, but there is only one way to absolutely guarantee that the flavor of today's Box Bear exactly duplicates the taste of that original brew.

We call it augmented electronics.

Music Music Music Music Complete automation has long been an ideal aspired to by our industry.

Complete automation at Box Bear has reached its pinnacle on the packaging line.

Note the ease with which production has changed from bottles to our bikini line.

Wait, that's not our bikini line.

There, that's our bikini line.

Automation ideal fully realized.

Since packaging has proved itself repeatedly to be a highly valuable marketing tool, much of Box Bear's research and development effort is focused on packaging.

In this vital area, we liberally avail ourselves of the ever ready advice and counsel of experts from Container Corporation of America.

Their massive marketing experience and far ranging technical abilities produce such innovations as this single unit bottle carrier, a consumer convenience breakthrough shown here for the first time.

There are occasions of course when an idea is ahead of its time.

A primary concentration is on product diversification, a tremendously important activity to every progressive brewer.

Box Bear's experts continuously conduct market tests for new products.

Products like Box Beer Sickles for example, and Box Bear Shampoo.

Music And at the other end of the personal scale, Box Bear Footbat.

The list is endless, just as the challenge is endless.

The challenge of keeping Box Beer ahead, whatever and wherever the application.

The new 25 -pack development demonstrates this truism amply, anticipating as it does, a little more demand by the consumer.

There is also much to be said for this mobile marvel, the CCA Roller Pack.

You just can't resist a package that comes to you.

And here is the newest surprise from CCA, the inspired Geyser Pack.

This development adroitly combines the basic compactness of structure with instantaneous discharge of contents, another dramatic consumer convenience feature certain to hit its mark.

Nevertheless, the marketing potential of paper board packaging in the hands of a creative company is unlimited.

And so the work never ends.

For the top echelon no less than for the lower reaches of the Box Beer domain.

Today this David who dared challenge the Goliaths of the brewing industry is itself a Goliath.

Many say the Goliath.

But even from the top, the view is not always rosy.

There are those who, for reasons of their own, would undo the good that Box has done.

But an enduring attribute of leadership is its ability to cope creatively with incipient adversity, even to the extent of converting resolute antagonists into zealots for the common cause.

Such are the dimensions of high achievement, the rewards of purposeful perseverance, durable components that have fashioned one of the outstanding success stories of our times, the soaring saga of Box Beer.

Identifier

F.2010-02-0175

Date Of Production

circa 1965

Abstract

Humorous industrial film made for Container Corporation of America employees, detailing the rise of a fictional brand of beer called Box Beer. The film's sets are elaborately, and appropriately, constructed from cardboard, and the film makes use of practical effects, found footage, and tongue-in-cheek voiceover.

The film follows Box Beer from the discovery of its "sand filtration" technique, to the development of its packaging line and marketing strategy, to the invention of a "taste computer" to aid in quality assurance and automation. The brand recruits the "ever-ready advice and counsel of experts" from Container Corporation of America, who demonstrate increasingly-ridiculous marketing ploys such as the mobile "Roll-a-Pack" and "Geyser Pack" of Box Beer. Ultimately, however ironically, the film emphasizes packaging's role as a highly valuable marketing tool. With the help of CCA's creative solutions, even a visit from the CCA Women's Temperance Union can't bring down Box Beer.

Run Time

0:19:31

Format

16mm

Extent

702 feet

Color

Color

Sound

Optical

Reel/Tape Number

1/1

Has Been Digitized?

Yes

Language Of Materials

English

Element

Reversal Positive Print

Genre

Comedy
Business and Financial
Industrial
Parody

Form

Short

Subject

Advertising
Alcoholic beverages
Business
Consumer goods
Containers
Design
Packaging
Industry

Related Collections

Rhodes Patterson Collection

Related Places

North America ➜ United States ➜ Illinois ➜ Chicago

Sponsor/client

Container Corporation of America

Main Credits

Patterson, Rhodes (is filmmaker)

Participants And Performers

Drnec, Harry (is actor)

Bennett, Bob (is actor)

Do you know more about this item?

If you have more information about this item please contact us at info@chicagofilmarchives.com.