Wild Turkey: Matthew McConaughey short

While it’s probably more common for creative directors to harbour secret dreams of Hollywood stardom, here’s a curious case of a bona fide celluloid hero turned CD. When asked to be the celebrity rep for the US bourbon brand Wild Turkey, the Oscar-winning actor (Dallas Buyers Club, Interstellar, True Detective) decided he wanted to be “more than just a face” and actually get his “hands in the clay of how we tell the story”.

Signing on as the brand’s CD, McConaughey will be acting as storyteller for the whiskey both behind the camera and in front of it. Launching in September, the campaign, from the New York agency Sunshine Sachs, will re-introduce Wild Turkey with a series of TV and digital ads to be helmed by McConaughey – his first time as director. He’ll also being looking as tasty as the amber nectar he’s marketing in a print campaign.

The short introductory doc (above) takes us on McConaughey’s journey along the Kentucky River to the Wild Turkey distillery, where he makes nice with employees and bonds with Jimmy and Eddie Russell, the father and son master distiller team who have been producing the whiskey for 97 years collectively.

Already showing a flare for a tagline, while clinking glasses of 101, Wild Turkey's bestseller, with the bourbon’s bid daddy Jimmy Russell, McConaughey utters the immortal lines, “good to taste the original, good to talk to the original”. Smooth, very smooth.