Incongruous tie-ins between celebrities and products are nothing new, from Bob Dylan shilling for underwear to Snoop plugging anti-virus software. At this stage, the arrival of a Garth Brooks cologne or a Conor McGregor fabric softener wouldn’t cause a blink of an eye.
At first glance, the decision by West Cork Distillers to put The Pogues together with a new Irish whiskey brand seems like an ideal match.
If you’re launching a new liquor brand, who better to endorse it than a band led by that notoriously hard-drinking desperado Shane MacGowan? Even better, the band have a song called Streams Of Whiskey, which could be ideal for the advert.
Then again, are MacGowan and his gang of hardy bucks really the best endorsement for your new alcoholic drink? No copywriter would dare suggest that you too could be like MacGowan if you drink enough of this blended whiskey, with its “aroma of malt, cracked nuts, almond and a slight sweetness”. Given the band and singer’s history with alcohol, someone, somewhere, must have had second thoughts about this one.
But we’ve already seen acts such as Iron Maiden, AC/DC and Justin Timberlake shill their booze lines, so The Pogues fit right in. Everyone has to eat, right?
