diff --git a/ci/helper b/ci/helper
index 8986772153..d3de6d96cb 100755
--- a/ci/helper
+++ b/ci/helper
@@ -40,7 +40,7 @@ class Parser:
         )
         containerparser.add_argument(
             "--image-tag",
-            default=":latest",
+            default="latest",
             help="use container images with non-default tags",
         )