Several agencies had swung and missed at this cool Irish brand, cranking out dour ads with sullen male models. Boring!

We looked at The Sexton’s gothic package and immediately recognized the millennia-old art motif of memento mori. The grinning skeleton doesn’t mean “You’re gonna die soon”… it means “Live for the moment (because you’re gonna die soon)!” It’s supposed to be fun, you see.

I cut a quick animatic to sell the idea, and the client liked it so much they asked us to film it, shot for shot. Add one classic song, mix in some fancy shooting from director Jake Scott (I edited this one), and we had the perfect booze ad for millennial pandemic fatigue: facing death with a stiff drink.