Beautiful cinematography, powerful and magical landscapes. A
group of young(ish), apparently rich and potentially interesting people. A
highland estate, a lake, a boat. A plane, an elegant car, a rugged car. Some,
not quite mainstream, not quite rock, not quite funky, but different music. And
some cows…Well, hairy cows.
These are the ingredients of the Guy Ritchie directed new ad
for Diageo’s “Haig Club” whiskey.
Oh yeah, and David Beckham. Almost forgot.
The film, lasting 90 seconds in its full duration, tells the
story of a group of people going to an estate in the Scottish Highlands, using
any means they have available. When they finally get there, they commemorate
their journey and friendship by celebrating with Haig Club, in what we discover
is a shared group ritual for their journeys together.
The ad itself does a great job in telling a compelling
story. It constructs a “myth” that you want to be part of. The directing is
crisp, keeps your interest and teases the audience with the potential coolness
and mystery of the rich, but not snobbish, characters. And after all who
wouldn’t want to go to the Highlands, in a hydroplane, for some quality time
with friends in a private castle by a remote lake. And smoke cigars, and drink
stuff from nice bottles, and talk about what a fun time they had in the Easter
Islands and not have to worry about going to work on Monday.
So yeah. Directing good. Story good. Music good. Beckham
good. It must be good, right? Well, depends...
Much as in the Rachel trifle, although the ingredients are
all there they just don’t quite add up. And here is why:
1.
David Beckham: Diageo has its fair share of
celebrity endorsements or product co-developing, some successful and some not
so much. Look at P.Diddy/Puff Daddy (I get confused) and Ciroc vodka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn88icJ2z2c
. Or at Madonna and Smirnoff vodka https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAAUFgAQZlg
. You’d think that after all this, Diageo would have understood that in order
to make celebrity endorsement work, there needs to be a clear and credible link
between the product brand and the celebrity brand. And that’s why you have
never heard of Smirnoff and Madonna.
So Beckham and whisky…
First off Beckham has so far sponsored a lot of things. And I mean a lot.
Sports clothes, regular clothes, aftershave, perfume, mobile telephony,
supermarkets, tablets, watches. And the Olympic Games 2012. That is a lot. So
as a brand, Beckham might be a bit too “wide-encompassing” or too stretched.
The other thing is that Beckham is not what you’d call a drink connoisseur. Many
times he has stated that he does not drink anything more than a glass of wine
or beer.
Neither is he a party/clubbing/overall celebration expert like
P.Diddy/Puff Daddy or whatever.
Beckham could work as a gimmick to “lure” people in, but he just doesn’t
have the “heart” to make them stay.
2.
Product features: Ok so you’ve watched the ad,
you’ve seen the cool people, the cool perfume-y bottle and you are intrigued.
So let’s say you buy Haig Club and you have a taste with a couple of
friends. So far everything one would expect from a whisky right? Well kind of…
See there are two main things the ad doesn’t tell you but any relatively
“in the know” whisky drinker would.
The label on the bottle reads: “Single Grain Whiskey”, which means the
whiskey is produced from grain other than malted barley which is the mainstay
in Scotch whisky. Grain whiskies are generally used to “dilute” the intense
flavor of malt whiskies so as to produce blended whiskies which are roughly 90%
of the total production. And that is because they have a smoother taste.
In general the whole category is very controversial among whisky
connoisseurs, especially in Scotland, with grain whisky traditionally seen as
kind of the “filler” that goes in blends and not “pure whisky”, with notable
exceptions.
Secondly, there is no age statement. If you look at your Johnny Walker or
your Chivas Regal you’ll see that most whiskies say something like 7 years old,
or 12 years old and so on. Generally it
is perceived that the more aged a whisky the better it is. I am not going to go
into that (very long) discussion, but that’s what the current perception is.
So back to our example, you toasted your friends with a cool bottle that
you presume is pretty much similar in quality to all whiskies, and WHAM! your
geeky friend or your bartender comes in and sows that little seed of doubt.
So who cares?
Well considering that the brand is retailing at around 60 Euro per
bottle, I am assuming the end consumer would care enough to not want to feel
doubtful of his choice immediately.
So what
about the Haig Club ad? At an aesthetic level it is very good. It teases, it
incites, it makes you want to be part of the myth, the legend, it constructs.
However seen as a whole, as the single representation of an actual product, a
product with functional and physical characteristics that come with a price
tag, it leaves a lot to be desired, because after all who really wants to
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