La La Land director Damien Chazelle brings a playful, 60s-tinged cinematic style to this ad for Johnny Walker.
As a 56-year-old straight white male, I sometimes get funny looks from people when I rhapsodise about Sabrina Carpenter. Particularly if they’re used to hearing about my love of extreme heavy metal festival Bloodstock, or how I’ve been checking out the cool indie upstarts at Green Man or Glastonbury.
But the way I see it, great music is great music, regardless of genre. And while some might see the pure pop of the Pennsylvania-born singer as vacuous, I see it as musical genius. Not to mention that, as best showcased in the recent Muppet Show revival, she’s got sass, personality and perfect comic timing like no one else alive.
So the idea that whisky brand Johnny Walker wanted to hire her and team her up with an Oscar-winning director doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. Nor does it raise an eyebrow that said director—Damien Chazelle, the filmmaker behind La La Land, Whiplash, First Man, and Babylon—chose a more ambitious direction than the slow-motion pour and lingering shot of a glass you might expect.
Instead, the ad was inspired by French New Wave cinema. Not the most obvious association, you’d think, when it comes to the star behind hits like Espresso, Please Please Please and Manchild.
This late-50s and 60s movement, associated with directors like Jean-Luc Godard and François Truffaut, ditched the glossy production standards of the time in favour of low-budget, on-location shooting, handheld cameras, natural lighting, and jarring jump cuts. The idea was to give the director complete artistic ownership over what were generally highly experimental films.
Experimental vibe
To be clear, the ad doesn’t look anything like a French New Wave film: they were usually black and white, for a start. But the experimental vibe is nonetheless there: from the laid-back live jazz and the way the camera swings casually back and forth as Sabrina enters the bar, to the fourth-wall-breaking wink at the camera, to the way the star disappears into the crowd and the same camera goes crazy looking for her.
The palette is warm, hazy, mid-century. Nothing very much actually happens: something that’s also very New Wave. And overall, the insouciant way it all hangs together makes you really feel like you’re at a party you’d really like to be at. What more could a booze brand ask for than that?
It shouldn’t be a surprise that it works so well, because this is a natural pairing between creative titans. Damien has built a career on visually ambitious storytelling, with themes of ambition and creativity. Sabrina, meanwhile, oozes the kind of confident, knowing style, retro glamour and tongue-in-cheek wit that fits and echoes such themes perfectly.
Creative adventure
The behind-the-scenes shots, which look like they were taken on a disposable camera, suggest this was a happy partnership. They feel loose and spontaneous in a way that suits the New Wave reference. And Sabrina seems genuinely enthused by the experience. “Working with Johnnie Walker and Damien was such a creative adventure,” she says.
“We wanted to create a true cinematic experience that was playful, unexpected, and full of personality. I’m a long-time fan of Damien’s work, so it was exciting to bring this visual world to life alongside him. This film felt like the perfect way to tell the Keep Walking story and capture the energy of this next chapter.”
The ad promotes the launch of Carpenter’s signature Go Go Highball serve and a limited-edition Johnnie Walker Black Label bottle inspired by Sabrina’s style. Both are rolling out across Europe, Australia and North America now, with more markets to follow in the coming months.
It also forms part of Johnnie Walker’s wider music ambition to champion artists who push creative boundaries and bring their own perspective to culture. And well, you won’t be surprised to hear me say I think they’ve picked well here.
Celebrity partnerships in advertising don’t always work. Nowadays, in an age when audiences crave authenticity, simply putting a product in the hands of a famous person doesn’t really add up to much. But
bringing in a director of Damien’s calibre and letting the film lean into Sabrina’s specific creative persona adds up to something more memorable. And hey, I’ll drink to that.
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