Animation Source Forums

YES ladies and gentlemen, you heard me RIGHT. Balto Beer ads and merchandise.

I found these at an online auction while I was doing my usual stuff there; looking for Balto stuff. I know.....

I know that these were from a company called the Thirsty Dog Brewing Company, which was made in 1997(as the logo says).

Other than that, I don't know anything more about these things.

Here is the url for the Balto beer poster:

http://i.ebayimg.com/t/BALTO-BEER-Bar-B ... ~60_35.JPG

And here is the Balto beer bottle:

http://i245.photobucket.com/albums/gg70 ... tobeer.jpg

And I noticed, that "Hey! This ain't Balto, that's Togo!" (I compared it with one of the real Balto pictures from the topics).


I think its weird that the beer says "Balto", but Togo's picture is there instead, along with Togo's musher.

Your Thoughts?

I believe there was a topic posted about these a few years ago.
Edit: togo-mistaked-for-balto-t20069.html

That is a picture of Togo and Leonhard Seppala. Seppala was not Balto's driver, but Togo's. Gunnar Kaasen was the driver of Balto's team.

Oops. My bad. Gotta fix it.

Further, this is not a true story item. This would probably be best served in another board. Perhaps "Other". While I'm always gratified to see new topic activity on the true story board, some boneheaded company mislabeling and misrepresenting Togo as Balto is not, in my opinion, a topic worthy of the true story board.


Further, I contacted this company some years ago to make them aware of the facts you mentioned. Their response amounted to the following:


"So what? Who the [bleep] gives a rat's [bleeeeeeeep]? We're out to make money, not to care about some dog who died long ago whom we enjoy exploiting and misidentifying."


You want to take a crack at them? Go ahead. But they already spent the money on the marketing and labeling. I wouldn't hold out hope of them having some moral epiphany over being informed of their boneheaded and callous error.

My father got me the beer bottle as a birthday present years ago. It still sits on my shelf, complete with the beer still inside. (I wouldn't dare drink it, even though the description of it on the label sounds rather tasty: "This smooth golden lager has a sweet, caramel-like flavor with a delicate, toasty malt aroma.").

It originally upset me that it wasn't Balto on the label...because I enjoyed, at the time, collecting Balto items; not just Balto THEMED items. It doesn't matter, though. It still says his name on the bottle and has a brief summary of his story on the label under the beer flavor description.

I really shouldn't be surprised by this, to tell the truth.