EMBARRASSING WHISKY ADVERTS
A new ad for Spey whisky spectacularly fails to get its message across
Last summer, Michael Owen signed a threeyear deal to become t he global brand ambassador for Spey whisky. A former star striker for Liverpool and Real Madrid, Owen is following in the footsteps of another England footballer, David Beckham, who is the face of Diageo’s Haig Club single-grain whisky.
That’s where the similarity ends, though. The ad for Haig Club, which you may have seen on TV, was directed by filmmaker Guy Richie and shows handsome people, including the suave Mr Beckham, enjoying their whisky in fabulous locations around the world. The Highlands in particular look gorgeous. It’s simple, sexy and aspirational, and it’s all done through imagery rather than words.
Spey’s, in contrast, is possibly the most cringeworthy ad for whisky ever made. Owen, who famously speaks in a painfully dull monotone, talks all the way through it. It starts off with him telling us that his passion in life is thoroughbred horse-racing – a surprise to many, I’d suspect, who only know him for his football. Against lots of action shots of horses’ hooves charging round a race course come Owen’s bizarre opening lines. ‘ Every time I step into the ring the spirit of a warrior races through me,’ he drones. ‘ Together, we bolt through the ring with vigorous sensations of speed.’ It ends with him telling us: ‘I always celebrate my wins with Spey whisky.’
It is the antithesis of passion. The ad has been called ‘ staggeringly boring’, ‘the worst ever made’ and ‘ agony to watch’ by various newspapers. Watch it and you’ll see why.
The Spey ad was made for the Chinese market and is horribly, hilariously reminiscent of the film Lost in Translation, in which Bill Murray, playing an actor whose waning fame at home means he has to find other ways to make a living, is in Tokyo to star in an advert for a Japanese whisky. He’s prepared to do it, however undignified it is, because he knows no one back in the States will ever see it.
Alas for Michael Owen, the advent of YouTube means there’s no hiding place any more. With social media and viral online videos, everyone can see everything.
If it serves no other purpose, I hope Spey’s ad at least acts as a lesson for whisky marketing departments in how not to blow the advertising budget.
I can understand why certain industries and brands use celebrity endorsement to make their products seem more aspirational, but I just don’t get it with whisky. The passion that Owen claims to have for Spey needs to be there for the ruse to work – and given the way he talks about the product, how many of us really believe that he toasts all his wins with Spey whisky? Any savvy consumer knows that Owen, or whoever the endorser is, loves the handsome cheque they’re getting far more than the product itself. It’s a shame, as there are dozens of far more productive ways to market whisky.
The extended 80-second-long version of the ad just reinforces this point. It rambles on about the secret of Spey whisky and the ‘manifestation of sacred elements’ that produce it. The ‘best’ bit comes right at the very end. Owen, standing next to some very staged-looking barrels of whisky, looks straight into the camera and, holding a finger to his lips, says, ‘Shh… keep the secret.’
The irony, of course, is that the sheer, laughable awkwardness of this ‘ secret’ moment is what has sent the video viral.
The secret of all this, it seems, is that celebrity endorsement may end up costing you more than money.
‘I hope it acts as a lesson in how not to blow the advertising budget’