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Shouting about what you don’t do as a brand can be as important as telling people what you do, and that’s something Camden Town Brewery has adopted as it launches its first national TV campaign, created by Wieden & Kennedy.

Positioned as the world’s first positive beer recall, the ad aims to educate beer-lovers about pasteurising – which involves heating beer to sterilise it – and how it’s something the brewery has vowed never to do.

Pasteurisation involves the raising the temperature of beer to destroy bacteria in the liquid and stops the growth of the yeast that might remain in the beer after packaging. Most lager is pasteurised, but the brand claims forgoing this process is what creates the taste of its products, which include the its flagship Hells Lager.

Unpasteurised beers must be kept fresh by being continuously chilled and consumed as close to the production date as possible.

The animated ad takes the form of a breaking news announcement from Camden Town Brewery and launches today with a 60-second spot during Channel 4 News at 7pm.

Voiced by comedian Lolly Adefope, it announces the recall of a small batch of Hells, which has been accidentally pasteurised.

The campaign was created by Joe Bruce and Albert Pukies, and directed by James Papper through Blink. The media agency is Bountiful Cow.

In the name of authenticity, Camden Town Brewery has actually seeded 50 pasteurised cans across the UK.

The cans are easily identifiable via warning stickers urging drinkers to call a specially created ALWAYS-FRESH-BUT-NOT-THIS-TIME Camden Hells Lager hotline, whereupon they will be compensated for the "damaged" product with a year’s supply of fresh, non-pasteurised lager. This consists of a case of 24 cans of Hells, delivered straight to the winner's door every month for 12 months.

ASA ruling hasn't affected creative ambition

The campaign comes a short amount of time after the brand was hit with a ban by the Advertising Standards Authority in March, after the watchdog ruled that its “drinkable” TV ad, “Give ‘em Hells beer giveaway”, was misleading about the nature of its giveaway promotion.

Vivian Ly, Camden Town Brewery’s brand marketing manager, admits the brand was left “disappointed” by the ruling, but that “learnings were taken on board”.

And the experience hasn’t changed the brand’s approach to ambitious marketing ideas. She said: “We pride ourselves on being a really creative brand and approaching things in fresh and exciting new ways.

“Our brand ambition is to continue to grow national awareness and we think the concept of the recall really brings to life the effect of pasteurisation on beer, which can be a somewhat complicated message for consumers to understand.

“For us, it really impacts the taste of beer and a fresh-tasting beer is extremely important to us. For us, it is intuitively wrong to heat up a beer because after that it is no longer fresh."

From January, Camden Town Brewery became fully integrated into its owner Budweiser Brewing Group, which industry magazine . It’s an accusation that has been hanging over the brand since 2015, when it was bought by global drinks giant AB InBev (the global name of BBG) to fund international growth plans. The move drew criticism from craft beer purists who tend to view the major brewing companies with suspicion.

But Ly is adamant neither move has changed its status as a craft beer.

She said: “For us it is really important to maintain our craft credentials and we are intending to grow within the premium lager area too, so we sort of have a foot in both camps in terms of our positioning as a beer brand.

“That’s why our price point is what it is, because we are a better beer. We’re worth paying more for, and we’re never pasteurised.”