Beefeater 24 launch

by Tom Innes



It wasn’t just bizarrely-clad trapeze artistes and a child’s rocking horse that were suspended on high wires above the crowds at the Beefeater 24 launch. Real life was also on hold.

Everywhere one looked, every piece of free time or patch of vacant ground, something freakish was going on. A remote-controlled fire-breathing Meccano horse charged at a man dressed as Jesus; monastic figures chanted softly in the bushes; drag queens vied with can-can girls for attention and stubble rash; mythical figures roamed around with firework-packed antlers on their heads and their tongues sticking out; a magician swirled a gin and tonic attached to a pool triangle and a dog lead around his head; Jesus, who was probably some distance outside his comfort zone by this stage, downed the drink in one.

The above paragraph isn’t much like any others I’ve written, and the global launch for Beefeater 24 wasn’t like any other party I’ve attended. Brand owners Chivas Brothers was determined to mark one of its most high-profile launches with a night to remember, and in spite of (or because of?) gin flowing like, or perhaps even instead of, water they certainly succeeded.

If there was anything conventional about the evening, it was squeezed into the early moments when media guests had the chance to learn about the new super-premium gin, which uses Japanese tea among its botanicals, from master distiller Desmond Payne and brand director Nick Blacknell. Dan Warner showed off the mixological possibilities with some polished cocktails.


Then the cabaret began, and never really ended. Strolling through the grounds of Syon Park in West London, guests in top hats and feather boas sipped mulled gin, stared at the never-ending parade of performers and then stepped into a large conservatory where the trapeze show played to a soundtrack of 50s rock and roll.
The Siberian October temperatures were just another factor some way away from the norm. Food began with cheese-and-biscuits, followed by pork pies, dishes of pasta, then canapes. Jade Jagger arrived to DJ in a booth constructed, by our friends at D2 design, from a sawn-off Rolls-Royce.



The event was a global launch attended by movers and shakers from around the planet. It must have cost dozens of hundreds of thousands. The firework display was epic. There will be those who question this in the horribly-cliched and omnipresent current climate.

But hang on. Desmond, Nick and team have been working on this launch for years, starting in an era when the credit crunch was a dessert served at the Rainforest Cafe to kids who’d eaten all of their main course. They’re stretching out the gin category in a bid to compete with rival super-premium white spirits like Grey Goose, Belvedere and Patron, especially in the US market, but without losing their London roots and credibility. There may have been mistakes regarding the way the announcement of the new product was handled, with a somewhat ham-fisted embargo, but we all live and learn.

Chivas could have taken any number of cautious options, but chose to press ahead with something big, ballsy and risky. Hats off.

We live in sensitive times, but there was nothing the average person would have found offensive, and nobody mentioned having sex with anyone’s grand-daughter. If there’s a problem with the global economy, is that the fault of Chivas? Clearly not. Should the company draw in its antlers, play it safe? Some people might think so, but I’d give Chivas credit for eschewing this course. The spending of a bit of money won’t do the economy any harm, and the chance to escape real life, offered from wall to wall on silver trays, was an opportunity the revellers feasted upon hungrily. Just in case it was their last feed for a while.

Click here to see more pictures and exclusive video from the event