Campari America, owners of Wild Turkey Bourbon, has come up with an interesting and fun promotion for Thanksgiving.
It’s a PR event that only that brand can own.
It seems that they have a turkey they claim is the “world’s first football picking turkey” that can predict the outcome of football games, starting of course, with the three this Thanksgiving. (Anyone following my football picking efforts this season knows that I’m the holder of that title.)
Bevlog, the blog run by my favorite alcohol industry attorney Robert Lehrman, has an interesting posting about a new vodka product. It’s called “Chokin’ Chicken.” The TTB approved the label in early Oct. You can find the blog here.
Is it a new direction in vodka? Are we moving from candy, cake, bacon and other flavors to nomenclature designed to get attention by being over the top. You know, like the guy who thinks he can get a laugh by putting a lampshade on his head.
Probably not. This most recent example of branding “excellence” joins the ranks of other previously approved sexual innuendo brands like – Spank My Ass and Call me Sally, a red wine from California; Well Hung Vineyard, a red blend from Virginia; and Vas Deferens Ale. (You’re just going to have to Google that one.)
Fortunately, none of these brands have seen the light of day, so far as I know. Which, I suspect, will be the chicken’s fate.
I don’t know about you but I’m glad the TTB approved these names. Their job is to regulate, not act as censors. Besides, they probably didn’t get the double entendre of chokin’ chicken.
It’s your tax dollars at work.
Drambuie Liqueur has been around for quite some time gathering dust in a very limited number of liquor cabinets. At best, consumers think of it as a drink their parents or grandparents enjoyed. At worst, few contemporary drinkers have never heard of it.
The brand is independently owned and sells in the 300,000 case range – close to 400,000 ten years ago. The signature and mainstay drink is still the Rusty Nail (one part Drambuie and one part scotch on the rocks). Although, the company has worked hard at contemporizing the drink choices and has also introduced upmarket line extensions based on the age of the scotch.
There is no question but that Drambuie has a unique taste that is, according to their website, “a unique blend of aged Scotch whisky with a secret combination of spices, heather honey and herbs.”
To address the brand’s image problems, the London ad agency, Sell! Sell! Has come up with a campaign called “A Taste of the Extraordinary.” According to Adweek, the “ad features all sorts of odd characters in a surreal and foreboding landscape.” The message seems to be that “Drambuie is the favored booze of those trapped in an existential hell from which there is no escape.”
Huh? It’s just booze folks.
Nevertheless, it’s a fun ad that’s just in time for Halloween. Unfortunately, it will run in Canada and the UK. Guess they don’t know how important Halloween is for US booze sales.
What’s your opinion of the ad?
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