Harrison Ford rarely stars in commercials, so when he decides to work with a brand, he has thoughts. And demands.

He’ll take a castle, for starters, to sign on as a spokesman for Scottish whiskey Glenmorangie, the Indiana Jones icon says during a phone call with his beleaguered agent.

“And I’m not doing all that action man sh*t that they want,” Ford says in his trademark growl. “But I will sit by the fire and drink amazing, smooth Glenmorangie single malt whisky.”

So begins “Once Upon a Time in Scotland,” a cheeky global campaign premiering today for the LVMH-owned brand. The cinematic hero spot—which gives a winking insider’s look at celebrity shilling—has a purposely “anti-marketing sensibility,” according to Caspar Macrae, Glenmorangie’s president and CEO.

“It’s a parody of classic tropes of whisky marketing,” Macrae told Adweek. “We’re peeling those back to get to a more authentic story.”

The 60-second video—with its tagline, “Niiiiice,” in Ford’s gravely voice—acts as the setup for a large-scale project and a three-year relationship with the actor. At the center of the effort is a branded content series—12 episodes in all, rolling out through 2025—that sends Ford to Scotland to learn how Glenmorangie whisky is made and meet its architects. 

Low-key hilarity ensues, including the irascible (and charmingly self-deprecating) Ford wearing a kilt, meeting the locals, and learning new vocabulary. There’s also a slight mishap with an antique suit of armor.

New story, new model

Glenmorangie “wanted to focus on the craft, the people, and the process, using our backyard studio in the Scottish Highlands,” Macrae said, noting that its creatives are taking a page from Netflix with the campaign’s bingeable mini-series.

For the collaboration with Ford, Glenmorangie took the rare step of going outside its traditional agency model, handling the project in-house, which “unleashed our creativity,” according to Florent Leroi, CMO.

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