Chillin’ Like a Villain with Johnnie Walker Blue Label

Johnnie Walker Blue Label and Porsche Design Studio have teamed up to create the Johnnie Walker Blue Label Collection of mini-bars designed to keep your bottles of Johnnie Walker ready to sip in style.

The made-to-order Johnnie Walker Blue Label Private Bar, available from Harrods, features state-of-the-art motion sensors to activate opening, revealing three bottles of Johnnie Walker Blue Label and four crystal glasses, “presented on a precisely angled surface – 24 degrees, like the bottle’s label” and “subtly illuminated to showcase the perfect serve of JWBL.”Continue reading...

California's Barefoot Wine & Bubbly has long supported efforts to keep beaches clean and “barefoot friendly.” Now the wine brand taken some of that beach trash and put it to use – in a billboard touting its new film, One Beach.

As you can watch above, the billboard — located in Venice, Calif. — used 18,000 pieces of beach detritus, and turned out to be a visually stunning reminder — in keeping with the brand's name — to keep beaches clean, beautiful and safe.

The campaign — which echoes Corona's "Save Our Beaches" effort in Europe — used the reclaimed trash motif in its poster announcing the film launch on Facebook.Continue reading...

SoCo with a Kick

Brown-Forman’s Southern Comfort is joining the flavoured spirits trend, but instead of going for sweet, like Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey or Jim Beam’s cherry-flavored Red Stag, SoCo is bringing out the spice with its new Southern Comfort Fiery Pepper.

The liqueur is splashed with Tabasco and aimed at the shot-drinking young male market as well as being promoted as a key ingredient for spicy cocktails. The brand surely hopes the new product will be a shot in the arm, as the overall Southern Comfort brand had an 11 percent drop in revenue during the quarter that ended July 31.Continue reading...

ABSOLUT Mode: Reflections of Fashion

The ever-chic ABSOLUT brand continues its long association with the world of high fashion with the ABSOLUT Mode Edition, a 12-faceted bottle wrapped in a silk cloth design and a sleek ad campaign starring model Shannan Click, shot by Sharif Hamza. The bottle is now available exclusively at Selfridges and Harvey Nichols in the UK, and after Sept. 5, the special edition will be sold at other major UK retailers.

British designer Gareth Pugh has designed an even more exclusive edition of the bottle featuring a “batwing” design inspired by the iconic “Stealth” jacket from his Autumn 2007 collection. This limited edition bottle will only be available after Sept. 7 by going to the W London Insider at the W London in Leicester Square and saying the password “Reflections of Fashion.” No word on the price for this bottle or how many will be available, so latecomers may find themselves speaking nonsense for nothing.Continue reading...

Madonna may have just turned 53, but she’s still hanging out with the club kids.

The Mother of Reinvention has signed on with Smirnoff vodka in a global deal that will kick off with a dance contest for the brand’s Nightlife Exchange Project. The project is a massive social media effort that is aiming to get 10 million people across 50 countries to exchange their “nightlife stories” on Smirnoff’s Facebook page, culminating in an event on Nov. 12 in which Smirnoff will throw 50 parties simultaneously around the globe.Continue reading...

Bacardi Oakheart: Spiced Rum for the Strong of Character

Bacardi is hoping "Oak and Coke" will be a drink order heard across the globe as it launches its new Bacardi Oakheart, a spiced rum with a “distinctly masculine, smoky edge” aimed at the young male market. The launch will be supported in the U.S. by the “Oakheart Challenge,” a series of events and competitions, presumably for distinctly masculine men. Apparently, 2,700 names were considered before Bacardi settled on “Oakheart,” which refers to the barrels in which the rum is aged and has overtones implying "strength of character.” Manly men, get ready: Bacardi Oakheart will be available in the U.S. in September.Continue reading...

Beam Global Spirits & Wine has come out with new branding in anticipation of its upcoming separation from parent company Fortune Brands. The new logo features the word “Beam” written in the script of James B. Beam, the fourth-generation distiller who gave the Kentucky bourbon its name.

The new branding highlights Jim Beam, the company’s flagship brand and the no. 1 bourbon globally, as Beam Global moves out from the umbrella of Fortune Brands to focus solely on the spirits business.

While the new design is not exactly a “bold choice” – Jim Beam bourbon’s most recent marketing theme – it reflects Beam’s strategy of focusing on the idea of heritage and authenticity in marketing its vast portfolio of brands, which includes Skinnygirl margarita and sangria, Sauza tequila, Maker’s Mark bourbon, Canadian Club whiskey and Courvoisier cognac.Continue reading...

Single malt Scottish whiskey is certainly the fuel for many good times, but now whiskey (or at least its byproducts) is fueling the Bruichladdich distillery – as well as a Nissan Leaf electric car.

The 130-year-old distillery, located on the remote Scottish island of Islay, uses waste products of whiskey distillation to produce gas, which powers a generator that provides enough power for all the electricity needs of the distillery operations. Mark Reynier, managing director of the distillery, also uses the whiskey-based electricity to power up his 2012 Nissan Leaf, which handles his 16-mile round-trip commute with one charge a week.Continue reading...