Scotch Whisky and Celebrity

Whisky writer Iain Russell explores the relationship between Scotch whisky and celebrity, revealing the role celebrities have played in shaping the image and appeal of Scotch whisky around the world. A tradition, believe it or not, dating back nearly 200 years.

The August launch of Moët Hennessy’s and Beyoncé Knowles-Carter’s new American whiskey brand, SirDavis, created worldwide headlines. The involvement of the singer-songwriter, now a successful businesswoman, is the latest development of a trend for celebrity partnerships in the creation and ownership of alcoholic drinks brands.

Among the first and certainly the most famous collaboration in Scotch whisky was surely Haig Club, introduced by David Beckham and Diageo back in 2014.

Since then, we’ve seen releases including actor Sam Heughan’s The Sassenach and Rod Stewart’s Wolfie’s Whisky. Even the actors Ford Kiernan and Greg Hemphill got in on the act, in their guise as the television comedy Still Game’s old age pensioners, Jack and Victor. But while celebrity partnerships are a relatively recent phenomenon in the world of Scotch, famous personalities have been endorsing individual brands for decades - arguably, since the 1820s.

During the 18th century, whisky was not generally considered a fashionable drink, and more affluent Scots commonly associated it with the drinking dens and drunkenness that plagued industrial towns and cities. George IV’s visit to Edinburgh in 1822 played a crucial role in changing such perceptions, not only in Scotland but wider afield: the King’s enthusiastic endorsement of the ‘Glenlivet’ malt whisky presented to him by Sir Walter Scott, and widely reported in the newspapers of the day, piqued interest in the spirit. And what could be more respectable than a drink favoured by Royalty?

Scottish distillers learned the lesson. If the endorsement of such a respected national figure was able to boost the image of whisky as a category, what might it do for individual distilleries and their embryonic ‘brands’?

And so, the first ‘celebrity endorsements’ were sought from reigning monarchs and other members of the Royal Family. Captain William Fraser of the Highland distillery Brackla was the first to gain a Royal Warrant, from King William IV in 1834. The whisky was soon being advertised under the name Royal Brackla, with the slogan ‘The King’s Own Whisky.’ The owners of Glenury, Lochnagar and other distilleries subsequently obtained their own Royal Warrants. They were joined by the proprietors of blended Scotch brands such as Johnnie Walker, Dewar’s and Chivas Regal. Royal patronage continues today, with King Charles an avowed fan of his Warrant-holder, Laphroaig.

It took the whisky industry a little longer to look beyond royalty and the aristocracy for endorsements. William Grant & Sons was perhaps the first company to hitch a ride on the popularity of famous entertainers of the day, when they sought to associate their Glenfiddich single malt with the internationally famous music hall comedian Harry Lauder. Shortly before the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, the company advertised heavily in the Scottish press with the slogan ‘Harry Lauder for Scotch Humour. Glenfiddich Special for Scotch Whisky’. Although it is not clear if Harry Lauder was ever or paid for – or even consulted about - the association of his name and the brand!

Celebrity endorsements became popular in the USA after the Second World War, and some agencies engaged famous personalities to promote Scotch brands. Perhaps the best-known campaign was for Old Angus, a blended Scotch brand which belonged to Distillers Company Ltd. The brand had a traditional, old-fashioned label and packaging. It is surprising, therefore, to find that among the celebrities who appeared in adverts to declare their appreciation of the brand was Salvador Dali, the surrealist artist famous for his waxed moustache and his melting clocks. To be fair, the endorsement seems unlikely to have come straight from the lips of the eccentric Spanish artist - would he really have said:
‘The Scotch I drink is Old Angus. It’s really tops’?

William Grant & Sons followed the American trend but preferred to associate their brand with rather more staid British personalities. During the 1950s and 1960s they worked with Compton Mackenzie, the author of the popular novel Whisky Galore, which was made into a star-studded British movie in 1949. Mackenzie and several of his famous friends and acquaintances were featured in a series of adverts extolling the qualities of their Grant’s Standfast blended Scotch. While the adverts were certainly ‘of their time’ and might seem a trifle stilted by modern standards, they must have had a positive impact on brand awareness as several were published in the British press.

Many whisky companies experimented with documentary-style advertising films after the Second World War, and one of the first to feature a celebrity endorsement was made by Tomatin Distillery’s owners in the late 1950s. The film featured an established star of stage and screen, John Laurie, later to achieve lasting fame as the curmudgeonly Private Fraser in the television comedy Dad’s Army. Laurie took viewers on a tour of the Tomatin Distillery and the surrounding countryside. His journey included a visit to the village pub where he drank deeply and waxed lyrical on the excellence of the single malt, bottled for the local market. The advert is remarkable not only for the winning performance of Laurie himself, but for the size of the drams that were poured and consumed in the pub!

During the 1960s and 1970s, many celebrity endorsements were unsought and unofficial. Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and the rest of the Rat Pack were often photographed drinking J&B Rare, for example, and others such as Truman Capote and Audrey Hepburn were also known to be great fans. Yet the brand did not seek to capitalise on their patronage.

The reluctance of whisky companies to associate themselves with personalities other than ‘pale stale males’ was epitomised in the late 1960s, when Macdonald & Muir passed up the opportunity to link their Glenmorangie single malt with Brigitte Bardot, one of the most famous actresses of the day. The French star stayed at the Open Arms Hotel in Dirleton in 1966 while filming A Coeur Joie (aka Two Weeks in September). Bardot and her then-husband, Gunther Sachs, developed a taste for Glenmorangie, and before leaving Scotland they ordered a case to be sent to each of their homes on the Continent. However, the brand’s owners saw no benefit in advertising their connection with the international superstar and declined to publicise the story.

One superstar greatly in demand for decades to endorse all sorts of products was the actor Sean Connery, arguably the most famous Scottish film star of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. For decades, however, Connery did not endorse a Scotch whisky and appeared only in advertisements for America’s Jim Beam and for Japanese distillers Suntory. Finally, in 2004, he agreed to become the face of Dewar’s 12 Years Old. The advertising campaign’s tag line ‘Some age, others mature’ provided a subtle connection between the long-established brand and an actor who had enjoyed enduring popularity with cinema audiences around the world.

Scotch whisky endorsements were taken to a new level by Diageo in the late 1990s. In 1999, they recruited the Hollywood actor Harvey Keitel to lead the first ‘Keep Walking’ global advertising campaign for Johnnie Walker. Subsequent campaigns have also featured leading celebrities, as in the critically-acclaimed ‘The Man Who Walked Around the World’ in 2009 – a one-take, 6-minute film showing Scottish actor Robert Carlisle telling the tale of Johnnie Walker, while striding through a remote Highland glen past unconventional props set up to illustrate the brand story. The film became an internet sensation, and did much to bring the brand’s aspirational ‘Keep Walking’ slogan to an even wider audience.

Johnnie Walker travelled further along the celebrity road in 2011 with the recruitment of actress Christina Hendricks, at the height of her Mad Men TV drama fame. She became its leading brand ambassador at a time when it was unusual to engage women to promote Scotch whiskies, and Hendricks gained fantastic coverage across the world for the whiskies in the Johnnie Walker portfolio.

Diageo has continued to surprise and intrigue Scotch drinkers since then, not least with the unveiling of another unexpected champion in 2015. They released a 45 minute online commercial featuring actor Nick Offerman drinking Lagavulin by the fire – silently, and for a full 45 minutes! The advert became a viral hit, and Offerman remains the celebrity face of Lagavulin today.

Celebrity endorsements have become part and parcel of the marketing of big Scotch whisky brands. Among the most notable today are those featuring the former Dr Who actor David Tennant, doing a bit of ‘Time Travelling’ with singer Emeli Sandé for Macallan, and the phenomenally successful K-Pop singer and influencer Lisa, promoting Chivas Regal to a new generation of drinkers in Asia.

Many more will appear in the coming months and years, as Scotch whisky companies seek to connect a new generation and new markets with their brands.