A spiced rum named after a tattoo artist is hoping to make more of a mark in a competitive category by joining the growing ranks of liquor brands being advertised on national television. Sailor Jerry, sold by William Grant & Sons, began running television commercials over the weekend on cable channels that include Comedy Central, ESPN, Fox Movie Channel and Spike. The commercials are being created by Quaker City Mercantile, an agency in Philadelphia, as part of a campaign that will include digital ads, social media, print ads and outdoor ads.

The fast-paced commercials feature snippets from a decade-old Sailor Jerry archive of concerts, events and documentaries. The spots — in versions that run 15 seconds, 30 seconds and two minutes — use on the soundtrack a high-energy punk rock song, “Where Eagles Dare,” recorded by the Misfits in 1979. The commercials can also be watched on the Sailor Jerry Facebook fan page as well as onsailorjerryuncut.com and YouTube.

The budget for the campaign is estimated at $7 million, a significant increase in ad spending for Sailor Jerry rum. Sailor Jerry was the nickname of Norman Collins (1911-1973), who became known for his work tattooing sailors. In 1999, Quaker City Mercantile, then called Gyro Worldwide, introduced Sailor Jerry as a life style brand, which grew to include clothing and other merchandise, music and the spiced rum.

The agency initially licensed the Sailor Jerry brand to William Grant, which was also a client; the two work together on other liquor brands like Hendrick’s gin. In 2008, Steven Grasse, chief executive of the agency, sold the rights to Sailor Jerry rum to Grant. Sailor Jerry is among liquor brands both young and old that are coming to television for the first time. Others include Hornitos, Jägermeister, Maker’s Mark, Pucker, Skinnygirl and Wild Turkey, as well as a black spiced rum, the Kraken. And that list is getting even longer, with at least one additional distilled spirits brand planning to start running TV spots in July.

For decades, makers of distilled spirits voluntarily declined to advertise on TV. That changed in 1996, when a Crown Royal commercial ran on a station in Corpus Christi, Tex. Since then, national cable channels and broadcast networks have started to accept liquor spots, as have local cable systems and TV stations. They typically restrict ads for liquor brands to specific hours, usually later at night, and certain types of programs, with audiences mostly composed of adults of drinking age and older. Sailor Jerry rum has “a core group of passionate consumers,” says Ken Reilly, category marketing director at William Grant, which is based in New York, along with “a lot of great support from bartenders and the trade. The time is right for us to move now” and try to “introduce the brand to a whole new range of consumers,” he adds, by using television as an ad medium.

Sailor Jerry volume rose 15.6 percent last year compared with 2010, Grant reports, reaching 667,000 cases. But “the spiced rum segment is becoming extremely competitive,” Mr. Reilly says, citing brands like Captain Morgan, the category leader, as well as Bacardi and the Kraken.

The way to increase interest in Sailor Jerry is to promote “the life style,” he adds, centered on elements like tattoos and tattooing, music, motorcycles and hot rods and “being an independent thinker, forging one’s own path.”

Could advertising on television turn off fans of the brand who may not want it to go mainstream? "I don't think we're risking anything," Mr. Reilly replies, because in creating the spots "we're careful to make sure we're true to the brand."

"We purposely set out to bring the vibe and tone and life style of the brand to life," he adds, by "showcasing consumers in the moment, enjoying the brand, and bringing the name and legacy of Norman Collins to the forefront."

The commercials intersperse glimpses of Collins, who is celebrated by a voice-over announcer as the "undisputed father of the old-school tattoo," with shots of tattoos and tattoo artists. In one spot, he is saluted as "a true independent spirit."

In some commercials, the announcer says of Collins, "We make our rum in his name." In others, a photo of Collins appears on screen along with the words "My work speaks for itself."

The commercials also offer vintage clips of sailors during what looks to be the 1940s, bands playing at Sailor Jerry concerts, people enjoying themselves in bars and other people engaged in traditional trades that are now trendy, like being butchers and building motorcycles.

In one spot, the announcer declares that Sailor Jerry is "distilled in support of craft, liberty and whatever the hell you wish to pursue." In others, he describes the rum as being "made the old-school way, 92 proof, bold and smooth as hell." In most of the commercials, the version of "Where Eagles Dare" heard on the soundtrack includes some bold words that cannot be printed in a newsletter published by a family newspaper. One version omits those words, to run on channels and stations with policies that prohibit spots using such language.

"The song is great," says Mr. Grasse of Quaker City Mercantile, because "it epitomizes what the brand is about."

It's "fun," Mr. Grasse says, to "see something you created grow so much," referring to the case volume for Sailor Jerry rum. A reason he decided to sell the brand to William Grant, he adds, is that "it was getting so big, it was kind of a little scary in a way."

With the proceeds from the sale, Mr. Grasse says, "the first thing we did" was "to get out of the tobacco business," referring to work the agency previously did for Camel cigarettes, which included ads that featured tattoos.

Quaker City Mercantile is continuing to develop brands and sell them, he adds, citing a line of distilled spirits called Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction, which the agency also sold to William Grant.

A large part of the success Sailor Jerry rum has enjoyed, Mr. Grasse says, comes from being perceived as an "underground" brand.To keep the brand's arrival on television from changing that perception, the commercials are "put together in a way that's authentic to the brand."

Because the spots "show what we've been doing" with the Sailor Jerry brand for the last decade, Mr. Grasse says, referring to the archival film, they are "honest," with "real people, not actors and models."

According to Kantar Media, a unit of WPP that tracks ad spending, William Grant spent $402,000 to advertise Sailor Jerry rum in major media in 2010 and $953,000 in 2011.