When Legends Meet
“To see Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg alongside my dad and Sammy Davis Jr. in such a revolutionary way is both thrilling and surreal.” Tina Sinatra in (People Magazine)
Four legends, two eras, one unforgettable night as Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg share Still G.I.N. with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr.
Mixing past icons with current icons. An interesting use of AI. One that might find greater adaptation in advertising and film. Certainly the use of advertising in the beautifully filmed commercial. Here, advertising a new brand of gin.
I can envision an extension of the idea to other brands that want to connect themselves to – say – great events in the past; places of the past or icons of the past. Perhaps icons in a event and place of the past.
All can be done through AI now and done flawlessly as this commercial shows. The lighting match is good. Voices are accurate. Recreations of the icons, excellent.
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In the beginning of the commercial, Snoop and Dre walk into a sophisticated restaurant. An interesting camera angle shooting up at them. A golden warmth atmosphere. They pass a table and one of two guys says to them “I got your thing.” Dre asks Snoop what do they mean by “thing” and Snoop says, you know, “the thing.” Dre thinks and says, oh yes, “The thing.” They walk by some beautiful women at a table who watch them pass. They are well-known in the club.
Then, a shot of two men standing at the bar of the restaurant, having a drink and watching the action. A white and black man. As the camera slowly zooms in, we notice it is a young Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr.
“Who the hell are these guys?” Frank asks Sammy.
“The new gangsters in town,” Sammy says.
Sammy gets the attention of the attractive woman bartender and Frank tells her to tell the two guys who just walked in that they would like to meet them.
There is a meeting between the four and they introduce themselves to each other. Then, in the closing scene, all are sitting at a booth table in the restaurant. They all put their glasses together in a toast.
Then the logo for Still G.I.N.
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When you’re looking at two of the most creative people in the world, a joint product launch and commercial like this is, it is always important to observe and get a sense where ground zero of popular culture is today. Not too far away from Snoop Dogg and Dre. Both billionaires from their own entrepreneurship. A brilliant commercial that takes risks.
In effect, the meeting of leading music icons from the 1950s with those of the 2020s. As such, the commercial is most powerful for those old enough to recognize the past icons of Sinatra and Davis as well as being into the music of Snoop and Dre. Might this be asking too much of a stretch for the audience? Or, might they be right on target with a connection between the music of the Baby Boom generation and Hip Hop music. This is an important questions to ask.
While the commercial is brilliantly creative and entertaining, being in marketing for most of my career, I have questions about the demographics of the gin market in America. I would suggest that this is a market that is hard to tamper much with because most of the liquor populace is settled upon their preferred major liquor categories like vodka, gin, rum and whiskey. It is difficult to move customers between brands within one major category like vodka. But it is much more difficult to more them from the vodka category of liquor to anew category of liquor like gin, for example.
That is, the Baby Boom generation. The commercial depends on this audience. It is the audience that Sinatra and Davis are icons in. In marketing terms, one would define this as the target market for the gin within the baby boom generation. (Parts of the generation would more relate to Sinatra than others and these parts should be perhaps be targeted to a greater extent). Again, the major question is whether Still G.I.N. requires customers coming over to gin from vodka or rum or whiskey. Not changing brands but changing major liquor preferences.
A big ask. Even from icons like Snoop and Dre.
The lower the gin market is in the U.S., the more difficult selling the product. It’s not really a matter of selling but of converting. Almost like the conversions of a preacher.
But lower the market (if this is in fact the case) perhaps the more opportunity. Snoop and Dre need to know that even they might not be able to sell gin to hardcore vodka or whiskey drinkers. Their brand might induce a taste of their gin by the advertising audience. Certainly current gin drinkers will be encouraged to try this new gin.
Yet, there are gin drinks in cans made by the brand and these most likely aimed at a younger audience into liquor in cans.
For those in the baby boom generation, a product is placed at the intersection of the music legends from the past and present. A certain alchemical reaction might happen in this commercial. A blending of the past and the present that gives a special – almost spiritual – presence to the product? A bottle of gin we are introduced to at the end of the commercial.
See the Dre and Snoop website.
Legends Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg raise gin to the next level in crafting their first pure bottled spirit: the ultra-premium Still G.I.N. by Dre and Snoop. Modern yet elegant, the latest release from the hip-hop icons’ new spirit company bursts with notes of tangerine, jasmine, and coriander for an unforgettable aromatic finish. Defiantly smooth. (From the website)
The commercial was created by Still G.I.N.’s creative agency, Rosewood Creative, alongside director Dave Meyers and generative AI company Metaphysic.
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NOTES
I heard about the commercial from my substack subscription to Ted Gioia’s The Honest Broker. He constantly points out fascinating things or reviews them or provides access to them. By far the most important substack I subscribe to. I consider Ted an unmatched cultural critic, historian, commentator.
He notes the commercial suggests the coming of a new Romantic Age. As he says in the notes to the commercial, “A year ago, I suggested that a new age of Romanticism was upon us. Since that time, others have discerned a similar shift in the culture (see this excellent article from Ross Barkan).”
By the way, the two articles are excellent. From two of our best writers on culture today. They attempt to see large cultural shifts from the 30,000 foot layer as they say in the media. Writing you don’t see that often. This is what I like and admire about both substack posts, from Ted and Ross. Excellent writing on topics I’m interesting in. Often, off the old beaten track (I’m not interested in beating anymore).
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One might, first of all, observe that our world is full of many revolutions. Political revolutions are what everyone thinks of yet they are really only one “genre” of revolution in the grand scheme of things. Like gin is only one genre of liquor. There are other revolutions out there, going on 24/7.
Like the Romantic Age that Gioia and Barkan remind us of. Not a revolution of the battle between two political parties but rather a battle between two ways of seeing the world. Gin versus vodka. Between ages of history like the Age of Romanticism as a response to the Age of Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.
In many ways, the subtext of this fascinating commercial does just this. A pervasive golden glow throughout the commercial. The presence of perhaps the two greatest romantic singers of the 20th century. About to meet the greatest hip hop artists of music 50 years beyond their time. The romance of the past meets the leading music icons of the present.
And the gin brand Snoop and Dre are promoting, caught right in the middle of this clash of icons. The leading market research firm Statistica notes “The combined volume per capita in the ‘Gin’ segment of the alcoholic drinks market in the United States was forecast to continuously decrease between 2024 and 2029 by in total 0.01 litres (-5.88 percent). The combined volume per capita is estimated to amount to 0.16 litres in 2029.”