I love this project. It’s an oldy, but a goody. And more than anything, I’ll always remember pitching it. We were tasked with bringing Southern Comfort a face within a retail concept that simply could not be ignored. And who better to do that, than the man himself: “Danny McBride. Bartender Extraordinaire.” I believed in this thing so much, I presented the monologue with a full-on southern accent.

The idea was a hit. My agency loved it. Brown Foreman loved it.
The Big Name agency of record? Oh, they were pissed. And you can see the conflict in the work. Case in point, they tried to turn Danny into an eccentric, coked out club guy with long hair. We wanted Danny to be Danny. So we did our thing, and they did theirs. Things got awkward. Then we all went to Sonoma with the client, popped bottles on a party bus and made everything better. It was awesome. Until it wasn’t.
Two weeks later Brown Foreman sold Southern Comfort to Sazerac and that was that.
Below, you’ll see what’s left of that work. The holiday stuff was a ton of fun. Somewhere I have an actual Bartender Extraordinaire Playbook - - - Below, you’ll find one page from that book… but it’s the best page. McBride Drops Knowledge.