Washington Post: Using carefully scripted on-premise marketing as the linchpin of hundred-million-dollar ad campaigns, the $15 billion-a-year liquor industry is pushing the concept of affordable luxury into the hands of people in their twenties and thirties as they lean over bars to order drinks. The idea is to get them to order not just a martini, but a Grey Goose vodka martini. To not just do shots of tequila, but to sip Jose Cuervo Reserva. To not order Scotch on the rocks, but Johnnie Walker Gold.
Which is perhaps why Ivan Menezes, chief executive of Diageo North America, the maker of Johnnie Walker, summarizes his strategy like this: “They may not be able to stay at the Four Seasons, but they can order a drink at the bar.”
