Watch above or read below.

Matthew Burns:
Well, I’m a somm, I don’t know how to say it any better than that… But Daniel Whittington’s with me today and we’re going to be talking about some whiskey ads, actually very specifically Irish whiskey ads by Tullamore D.E.W.

And I want to throw the first one up right away and not really talk too much because I want people to see this, but we have two and we’re going to do a comparison. That’s my favorite thing because I learned that if you don’t compare against something else, you can’t actually describe the one. So watch this ad and let’s see what happens.

 

[Singing The Parting Glass]

Matthew Burns:
Okay, that was long and somber.

Daniel Whittington:
Yeah.

Matthew Burns:
Okay.

Daniel Whittington:
Almost sad. Melancholy.

Matthew Burns:
Oh man, dude. And I watched this for the first time a couple weeks ago when I was at Whiskey One taking a course down at the Wizard Academy that Daniel not only runs the academy but teaches the course. And you played this ad and I immediately, I was going like, “This is a story. There was nothing else but story in this so it fits Sticky Sales Stories perfectly and asked you, please, please, please come on the channel.” So talk to me about why you show that one off at Whiskey One and talk to me about the emotion that it brings out for you.

Daniel Whittington:
Well, a principle of Wizard Academy is win the heart, the mind will follow. We talk about it all the time. We talk about it with our clients and Wizard of Ads, but everybody from plumbers to jewelry to whiskey people, they always want to talk about the facts and the data and why their product is better and their customer service is better and why other people are trying to screw you. But we aren’t, we’re actually honest.

And in whiskey, it’s inevitably the brands that are like, “Let’s talk about how we distill and our grain use and that we’re grain to glass and that our bottles were harvested from reused, recycled material.” And all of that is about you, you, you, you, you. Sing one of the most famous songs. 17th century Gaelic, Scottish, Irish, evidently a condemned man wrote it.

And it was the most popular old folk song until Auld Lang Syne. So it’s well known. I don’t know. It’s like in Texas, there’s someone being like on the road again, can’t wait to be gone on the road. Oh, it’s Willie.

Matthew Burns:
Yeah, exactly.

Daniel Whittington:
Exactly. This is Opperman Weiss, which is ironically it’s a New York advertising company. And so Jeff Weiss and Paul Opperman, and they wanted to, they love Ireland. They’re very versed in the history and the poetry and the story of Ireland. They wanted to capture the soul of the spirit of what it feels like to be Irish and to be in Ireland and to be there.

Matthew Burns:
I told you it was going to rain today. The beginning line, right? It’s hilarious.

Daniel Whittington:
I mean, the copywriting was Paul Opperman directed by Jeff Weiss and Laurence Dunmore. And they actively just took you on a journey and a story. And it’s a mixture of sadness, sadness, sadness, sadness. Oh, wait a minute. It’s a celebration. It’s a wedding. That’s right.

Matthew Burns:
It’s a wedding.

Daniel Whittington:
Story twist, but it doesn’t let go of the melancholy because anybody who’s had a friend get married has experienced that moment of both joy and also things were changing. It is a loss.

Matthew Burns:
Well, it is a loss. And you look at it, dude gets up there. So it’s melancholy, they’re losing their best buddy. Well, they’re losing a couple of Saturday nights a month. That’s what they’re losing. And so they’re losing their buddy a little bit and so they’re sad and it’s raining and it’s drab and it’s this kind of deep sadness. And then the wife shows up, the bride shows up and he’s like, see you boys, they all cheers and he walks away. And then they go back to singing sadly. And one of the best parts, my favorite part was the… Oh, you know it’s tipping the hat, letting the water drip into the glass. It was so brilliantly done. And that’s what had me. I watched the whole thing and I was going, I have no idea where this is going because I hadn’t seen it.

This is what makes me excited. When I see a new ad that I haven’t seen that is good because there’s not a lot of good ads anymore, that you see this good ad and you go, and I got gut punched. And I’m like, now guess what I’m going to do? I have to taste some Tullamore D.E.W. I had to. I didn’t have an option. I went right into the vault at the Whiskey Academy. That was the first one I tasted. I was like, oh my God. So yeah, so mystery all the way through.

Daniel Whittington:
It speaks to what we believe and what I think what whiskey is for, which is it’s not about the whiskey. The whiskey is just the vehicle for human connection and story and making moments magical and remembering a thing. And so it ties in the human story and the human condition into celebrate it with this.

Matthew Burns:
That’s right. You said something to me when I was down there, you said something I thought was brilliant because I said, “Hey, you got to come on the show.” “Yeah, I’ll do it with you.” But you said something out loud in the class. You said this would never get passed in America. And there’s a couple of reasons why it would never get passed in the US or in Canada. Number one, you’re not allowed to drink.

Daniel Whittington:
Yeah. Well, we’re way too Puritan in American advertising. I can see where that came from. What is now DISCUS, a distilled spirits council, is an organization for promotion and protection of guidelines of spirits and safety and best practices in the US. And it dates back to, I mean, really it dates back to pre-prohibition, but most directly, immediately post-prohibition. And so as soon as prohibition ended, the top eight companies, six with eight brands, they were all terrified that they were going to lose it and somehow prohibition was going to come back.

Matthew Burns:
This is a protection scheme.

Daniel Whittington:
And so they voluntarily met and created a code of responsible advertising practices that they would voluntarily agree to follow and presented it to the government and said, look, look, look, we promise to be nice guys. We promise to be nice. And that code is still in effect.

Matthew Burns:
Please don’t take our whiskey away.

Daniel Whittington:
Yeah.

Matthew Burns:
Oh my God.

Daniel Whittington:
The original one had things like, we won’t advertise to women and children. We won’t advertise around Sundays. We won’t use explicit religious themes. And now it’s a 24-page document currently, you can download it from the DISCUS website of the code of responsible practices they even have in there. If you hire an agency to do your marketing and you’re an alcoholic beverage, you need to hand them this document so they understand their marketing guidelines.

Matthew Burns:
That’s brilliant. Out of fear, they censored themselves.

Daniel Whittington:
Yes. And they still are. And now, I mean, there’s things in there that’s fair that’s like, hey, maybe don’t show underage drinking or maybe don’t show a bunch of people getting trashed or maybe don’t show people drinking and driving. And those are in there. And it’s like, yeah, that’s kind of an obvious one. But there are also ones that are in there that’s like, don’t imply that alcohol leads to success, that it’s a marker of high sexual prowess.

Matthew Burns:
But wait a second. That goes against what we learned in the class at the beginning, which is I thought it was the elixir of life. I’m just saying.

Daniel Whittington:
Well, if you’re gaelic, it’s the water of life. In America, it’s irresponsible, man.

Matthew Burns:
Here’s the thing. So this is a melancholy ad. It’s a famous song, The Parting Glass. They did the same partying glass idea and they flipped it in this ad. Watch this one.

 

Group Singing:
The parting glass – goodnight and joy be with you all. Just give me your hand and listen to me that where we must go is where we must be, but our time will come and the future will be. Just give me your hand. Just give me your hand.

Police Officer:
Okay boys, glasses up. It’s time to go.

Daniel Whittington:
Never in a million years, never. As a matter of fact, I’m going to argue that there is a UK guide of responsible marketing practices. Okay. It’s not as strict as America’s, but it’s there. And I would argue that they danced so close to the line of not even okay in Ireland, but they pulled it off because there’s a line in the UK guides that says some version of it can’t be rewarding, fun, exciting activity to be drinking and it can’t make someone look more tough and successful and powerful. And it’s like, yeah, you did just show a bunch of guys who got arrested and the whole bar is cheering.

Matthew Burns:
Okay, but all these things are magically amazing to us as whiskey. Well, as whiskey guys, but also as Wizard of Ads partners, marketing guys. But think about it, we don’t like to tell things. We like people to feel things. We don’t tell you how to feel. We let you feel them. Show don’t tell. And so why did they get arrested? And that’s a real good question because why is everybody cheering in the bar as they walk out? Well, you get to make up your mind, right?

Daniel Whittington:
Yes you do.

Matthew Burns:
There’s so many gaps, but yet it’s a complete story.

Daniel Whittington:
Your brain doesn’t go, they probably murdered someone. Your brain goes, they probably did something that the response was, you rapscallions, as we have to, but we all know it’s not that big of a deal.

Matthew Burns:
That’s right. You know what? And the cop was probably the guy farthest on the right’s dad. I mean, I’m just saying.

Daniel Whittington:
If this had been Scotland, I would say they were probably putting cones on the heads of statues or something.

Matthew Burns:
Well, yeah, or something like that. So no, but two completely different emotional bases, right? Same premise, same idea of the parting glass. We love being together, but now we got to go somewhere else. And two completely different, but both life stories, both shared experiences. This is beautiful storytelling… Obviously, and again, say the name because I didn’t hear you say it. Who’s the advertising agency again?

Daniel Whittington:
Well, it was Opperman Weiss.

Matthew Burns:
So Opperman Weiss, they did a brilliant job. I mean, a brilliant job guys.

Daniel Whittington:
Flawless.

Matthew Burns:
Hats off. Good job. It just goes to show you, you don’t have to say what grain is in the whiskey. You don’t say what size bottle you need to buy. You don’t say how long it was aged. You don’t say… There’s no features or benefits in here except for this is how you drink whiskey. You share it with your friends.

Daniel Whittington:
Yeah, and celebrate.

Matthew Burns:
And celebrate. And just hats off guys. Guys, stick around for next week when I’m back with Daniel Whittington.

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