Whiskey Ad Packs Emotional Wallop

If you watch commercials (and really, who doesn't?), you know that the standard subtext in beer and liquor commercials is that by purchasing the product, you'll have the best time, hanging with the coolest and most beautiful people, doing the coolest things. You might get a visit from the Swedish Bikini Team, or if you're "Up for anything" you'll be spirited away to an awesome concert or someplace else that qualifies as cool. You know the routine.

That's why I was blown away by the latest commercial for Johnnie Walker, done by college student directors  Daniel Titz and Dorian Lebherz.

The two directors are currently studying at the Film Academy of Baden-Württemberg in Germany, with the hope of someday being successful in the advertising field. The "Dear Brother" ad was done as a spec (in other words, they weren't hired by Johnnie Walker to produce the ad, they did it in hopes of gaining some attention), and as of this writing, Titz and Lebherz haven't presented it yet to Johnnie Walker.

In this commercial, there are no bikinis, concerts, wild and crazy parties, or anything else you've come to expect in a pitch for this type of product. What you do get will probably make you think of someone in your life.

If all commercials were this well done, it might eliminate the need to fast forward through ads on your DVR.