They may not be drinking our beer there, but they are drinking their beer here.
A television advertisement for a Polish beer based on an Otago pub remains a hit on Polish television, four years after it was filmed, and is credited with helping increase the company's business.
In 2005, the brewer of Tyskie beer approached a New Zealand-based film company wanting a television advertisement of people drinking beer in a "middle of nowhere" Otago pub.
Exile Films executive producer Ian Gibbons said the brief from the makers of the beer, which is sold only in Poland, was to have people in the most unlikely locations, such as Otago, drink Tyskie beer.
After filming a similar ad in the Australian outback, the company was asked to film an advertisement for "Tyskie Otago".
"The story revolved around a lonely pub in the middle of nowhere and our hero was a lone horseman . . . with his sheep dogs who rides to the pub for his glass of Tyskie," Mr Gibbons said.
With only one Tyskie left in the refrigerator, the stranger and the other patrons decide to have a darts competition to decide who gets the beer. Much to their surprise, the barman hits a bulls-eye and drinks the beer.
While the request was for a bar in Otago, the film company settled on a farm track on Ohau Downs Station, near Twizel, constructing the exterior of the pub.
Only the opening sequence was filmed in Otago, and no local actors were used, but Matt Sunderland, who played David Gray in Out of the Blue, was cast as one of the patrons.
The advertisement continued to be played in Poland and the campaign had helped the beer become a market leader in Poland, he said.
Despite the global credit crunch, international companies were still interested in filming here as "the current value of our dollar makes New Zealand a very competitive location to film".
Varied locations and industry experience e made New Zealand a popular destination for advertisements, he said.
In recent years, the company had filmed a variety of advertisements on location in Otago and Southland, including, Hilfiger, Hummer, Toyota and Nissan.
