Grumpy Harrison Ford in a Kilt Fronts New Glenmorangie Ads

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.

“We like to innovate and try new ways of storytelling,” Leroi said. “We wanted something entertaining, allowing consumers to follow Harrison on his journey in discovering Scotland and interacting with the staff at the distillery.”

Cast members are real-life employees, not actors, with Ford taking on the role of mentor and informal coach for his distillery artisan co-stars, Leroi said.

With decades of seminal film work on his CV, Ford is having a moment as a recent Golden Globe nominee for the Apple TV+ dramedy Shrinking and a lead role in Yellowstone prequel 1923. He will join the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Red Hulk in the upcoming superhero flick Captain America: Brave New World.

He starred in a popular Amazon Super Bowl ad from 2019, but his commercial list is short.

Joel Edgerton, actor and filmmaker, directs the series as his first major advertising foray, in partnership with the brand’s creative director Justin O’Shea and production agency Bandits. 

‘Off the leash’

Both Ford and Edgerton found it appealing that they would have a wide berth on developing the content, per Glenmorangie, which provided a transcript of a conversation between the two men.

Ford as a tough guy doing macho things like riding horses and flying planes would be too cliche, they said. But poking holes in that persona was fertile ground.

“We had lots of opportunity to noodle around—nobody stopped us,” said Ford, noting that he was glad to “take the piss out of himself.”

“I think it’s fun to not be as structured or ‘strictured’ as a commercial,” he said.

Edgerton said, simply: “They let us off the leash.”

The campaign’s worldwide media plan spans online video, connected TV, out-of-home, experiential and social platforms in key markets such as the U.S., the U.K, Germany, Japan, and South Africa. The first six episodes drop this week, with the rest planned for the coming months.