Dad was cool and so was his highball

Although it is Canadian in name only, Fortune brands' Canadian Club rye whisky is getting its first advertising push in 20 years, built around the theme "Damn Right Your Dad Drank It".

Some of that advertising may find its way into Canadian magazines though, for now, the campaign is running in Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated and The Sporting News, with additional placements in Playboy, Men's Journal, Esquire, Outside and Men's Fitness in December and throughout 2008. The campaign will also be featured in spirits trade publications, radio, out-of-home media buys and viral elements, according to a story in MediaDaily News.

Using sepia-toned photos from the 1960s and 1970s of guys holding gals and rocks glasses of whisky cocktails made with Canadian Club, the number two Canadian whisky (and 4th best-selling alcoholic product, behind Jim Beam, Sauza Tequila and DeKuyper). The message is that consumers' dads were cool, stylish and masculine, and so were their whisky cocktails.

Many of the shots were culled from family photo albums by employees of Beam Global Spirits & Wine (the Fortune division that holds CC). The very first ad execution, with the headline, "Your Mom Wasn't Your Dad's First," as well as several point-of-sale materials, feature vintage photos of a mid-to-late twenties Dan Tulia, Canadian Club's current global brand ambassador.

The ads target men 30-40 "who are looking for a masculine, classic cocktail, something that their dads embraced when they were cool and stylish back in the 1960s and 1970s, said the company."

Other executions of "Damn Right" have headlines like "Your Dad Was Not a Metrosexual" and "Your Dad Never Got a Pedicure."

Canadian Club has for years been produced by the Hiram Walker distillery in Windsor, though the brand was bought by Fortune Brands in 2005 when it bought some 20 spirits and wine brands from Pernod Ricard after Pernod Ricard acquired Allied Domecq. Until this new ad campaign, the CC focus has been in motorsports.