The requirements for starring in a television commercial have traditionally included such attributes as youth, vigor and the ability to remember one's lines without assistance. Tito's Handmade Vodka has decided to dispense with at least one of these.
The Austin-based spirits brand, which has built its reputation on an everyman authenticity that distinguishes it from the crystal-bottle pretensions of imported competitors, has introduced a campaign featuring spokespersons who are all at least 100 years old. The advertisements promote a new 100-milliliter bottle — a size that, one supposes, allows for the kind of modest pour that might be advisable at that age.
Bandolier Media, the production company that executed the campaign, put out a casting call to retirement homes across Central Texas, according to George Ellis, a co-owner and creative director at the firm. The response, Mr. Ellis said, was enthusiastic, though logistics proved challenging. "The challenge was finding folks and then making sure we could have caregivers and family bring them to a central location," he said.
The resulting spots feature five centenarians — Grover, Antoinette, Jesse, Johnnell and a man named Harry who professes a distaste for puzzles — each of whom brings what the brand's content manager, Christina Rhodes, described as "humor and wisdom" to the proceedings. (One might note that wisdom, in advertising, is typically valued somewhat less than the 18-to-49 demographic.)
Mr. Ellis recalled one exchange with Grover, who is 104, in which the production team asked whether he had played bingo recently. "His response: 'Oh yes, I played recently. I think it was 1982,'" Mr. Ellis said. For a man of that vintage, this perhaps qualifies as recent.
The campaign represents an unusual bet for a spirits category that has long favored imagery of nightlife, aspiration and the kind of attractive young people who appear never to have experienced a hangover. Whether consumers will find centenarians equally persuasive remains to be seen, though the spokespeople themselves have, at minimum, demonstrated considerable brand loyalty to living.