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Tullamore D.E.W. – A Lesson in Global Advertisement

The Beauty of Blend

Tullamore D.E.W. is the second largest Irish Whiskey producer in the world. This is a pretty nice fact when I consider that without Irish Whiskey we probably wouldn’t have had the poetry of James Joyce or Shane MacGowan. It’s because of Irish poets and whiskey that I get the urge to write until sunrise. The cure to our ‘turn-of-the-century writer’s block’ has moved into the future with Tullamore D.E.W.’s social media campaign on diversity.

As immigrants to the United States, diverse cultures have often been met with resistance. The Africans (of many countries), Chinese, Italians, Irish, and most recently, the peoples of the Middle East, have dealt with racism and exclusion in the Americas well before the Confederacy. In fact, one can say that the Irish’s cultural exclusion flows through their blood and history, as the common phrase 100 years ago, “No Irish, No Blacks, No Dogs” is tantamount to.

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It’s fitting then that Tullamore D.E.W., as spokesmen for the “whiskey of the Irish emigrant”, have built a convincing campaign called “The Beauty of Blend.” The social media project combines the fact that Tullamore D.E.W. is a triple-blended whiskey – of pot still, malt, and grain – and the beauty of cultural mixing through immigration. The commercials posted through Instagram and YouTube have garnered attention as honest, heart-of-gold marketing tools that have expanded their brand and brought attention to our current political climate.

It’s refreshing to see a love for the beauty of immigration and cultural mixing, when a large portion of the U.S. is fighting against it. The commercials premiered in the states at the New York Tenement Museum, which houses the history of, “…the stories of 97 Orchard Street. Built on Manhattan’s Lower East Side in 1863, this tenement apartment building was home to nearly 7000 working class immigrants.”

Tullamore D.E.W.’s use of captions in their Instagram content is a great way to show the history of emigration and how diversity has impacted our world. From inventors, to writers, to dock workers: cultural diversity has created the western world.

Writing about the advertisements really doesn’t do them justice though. I honestly think that they have accomplished some of the best brand marketing I’ve seen in years. Their global public relations team has definitely made an impact.

These advertisements have influenced me to stay up late with as many diverse people as I can, listening to music from around the world, and speaking about the beauty of culture – but most importantly, from Tullamore D.E.W.’s perspective: it makes me want to buy their whiskey.

Tullamore D.E.W. have done their jobs to get social media to reach people like me: blended mutts made up of many different cultures from around the world.

Sláinte.