Actress Anna Paquin and The Glenlivet are ripping up the rule book on whisky drinking traditions in a provocative new campaign.

The Original Speyside Single Malt is on a mission to break the whisky drinker stereotype and shine a light on all appreciators.

As Paquin notes in a new commercial for the brand: “Whisky doesn’t care what’s between your legs, so why should we be told to follow these rules?”

“I first discovered Glenlivet while I was working in Scotland,” Paquin said. “While it tastes great on its own, I found it’s even yummier when you add a little mixer and create a cocktail.”

The Glenlivet Australia and New Zealand Marketing Manager Kristy Rutherford said” “Anna not only personified our core brand values, but just like The Glenlivet, she redefines her own category whether that’s through her acting, speaking out about social injustices or taking a stance that she can drink her whisky however she pleases.”

“Whisky has long been seen as a symbol of power, drunk solely by middle-aged, white men behind closed doors of the ‘Old Boys’ Clubs’. In fact, one-third of whisky drinkers globally are women, and we want to make the point that all kinds of people can and should have access to power and influence – and great single malt, of course.”

Changing the face of whisky

The Australian and New Zealand campaign builds on The Glenlivet global mission to change the outdated perception of the stereotypical whisky drinker – one image at a time. To challenge the cultural norm of the whisky drinker as a middle-aged white man, The Glenlivet is infiltrating search engine algorithms, purposefully planting images to change the visual landscape.

The move is part of its new platform, ‘This Is Whisky’, which aims to challenge a range of old upheld conventions in the world of whisky. Now when searching ‘whisky drinker’ using the Google Images search service, the user is greeted with a colourful montage as unique and diverse as real whisky drinkers in 2022.

In Australia and New Zealand, nearly a third of female drinkers drink whisky monthly, a 40% increase since 2015. Females are adopting whisky at four times the rate of males.

The campaign has been created in collaboration with Australian-based creative agency Emotive and directed by famed fashion director and photographer Jamie Nelson on location at her 1968 Hollywood Regency style house in Los Angeles, sees Paquin turning whisky drinking traditions on their head.

Whether squeezing fresh fruit into The Glenlivet, enjoying some whisky with ice or simply using whatever glass is closest, Paquin revels in the kind of totally normal behaviour that makes Whisky purists squirm in their leatherbound armchairs.

On offering her personal space to shoot The Glenlivet campaign, Nelson said: “It made so much sense to shoot this The Glenlivet campaign with Plus Plus Productions at my house. My vision for the campaign was to take the consumer away from the stereotypical stale and outdated brown leather whisky drinking den we imagine our grandpas sipping scotch and whiskey in. Instead I wanted to showcase our star, Anna Paquin, in a new whisky-drinking world that is colourful, playful, sexy, rock
and roll, and exudes unashamed confidence in one’s self.”

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