Kentucky to Gotham: How Jefferson’s Bourbon Secured a Title Role in HBO’s ‘The Penguin’

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HBO's "The Penguin" has handily secured another hit for the streaming giant, racking up over 10.4 million views in the days after its premiere and a current #1 spot atop this week's Streaming Top 10 chart. The show, a spin-off of 2022's "The Batman," features an unrecognizable Colin Farrell underneath pounds of makeup, an ever-grimy Gotham City and — unexpectedly — a heavy pour of whiskey. Jefferson's Bourbon locked in a deal with HBO to air a themed pre-roll ad before each episode. In it, the camera sweeps through an animated city as clubgoers and businessmen drink neat sips amid the doom and gloom. A gravel-voiced narrator asks the audience:

"What is a legend? Can you find two of them in a crowd? Do they cast a long shadow? When they speak, who listens?"

If you've tuned into the show, there's a good chance you're already familiar. The clip aired as a 45-second spot ahead of the premiere and an eight-second spot for every episode after — regardless of your ad tier on HBO. But how does a bourbon brand come to sit at the same table as a supervillain origin story?

 

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“We wanted to find a partner and an opportunity to tell our brand story in an unexpected way, and I think ‘The Penguin’ presented such a great opportunity for us because the story was very akin [to ours] in that it was all about the unconventional rise and character of [Oz “The Penguin” Cobb],” Jenny Hermanson, senior director of omnimedia strategy at Pernod Ricard, said per Marketing Dive.

Jefferson's "unconventional rise" began in 1997 when it was founded by father and son duo Trey and Chet Zoeller. Chet, a bourbon historian, traces his lineage back to an eighth-generation grandmother who was arrested in 1799 for bootlegging liquor. Jefferson's eventually debuted a bottling in her honor. The Kentucky-based brand was acquired by French spirits giant Pernod Ricard in 2019. Today, the blender is best known for expressions including its Straight Rye, Reserve Twin Oak and Ocean Cask Strength (in hindsight, that last one could generously be interpreted as a nod to penguins).

“As projects go from development to get greenlit, our team gets read into the creative ethos and storyline,” Ryan Gould, head of digital ad sales at Warner Bros. Discovery, added. “We understand the quality of the content, we understand the storyline and the nature of the content, and then we start to build a prospect list of the brands that we want to go out and partner with.”

HBO has teamed up with a handful of alcohol brands in the past, usually through in-universe branding rather than pre-roll advertisements. Fans of 2011's "Boardwalk Empire" might remember Canadian Club whisky lurking around its dimly lit Prohibition cellars. The brand even debuted limited-edition packaging paying homage to the show. A few years earlier, "Entourage" dedicated entire episodes to a plot line in which Avion Tequila was jostled between celebrity investors including Mark Cuban. The branding was so prominent that some viewers didn't realize Avion was actually a real liquor. Incidentally, Avion was acquired by Pernod Ricard — the same company behind Jefferson's — a decade after its debut on "Entourage." [callout-app-promo]