Hendrick’s Gin Launches Chat G&T as a Human-Powered Alternative to ‘Too Efficient’ Tech

A genteel young man named Elliot, livestreaming on Instagram from a Swedish castle, sing songs, recites poems and answers questions—both silly and existential—while sipping a cocktail.

Who needs ChatGPT when there’s Chat G&T?

This “wildly inefficient” stunt comes from Hendrick’s Gin as a dig at artificial intelligence, offering up an admittedly flawed but charming human with a British accent as a substitute for ubiquitous chatbots.

“We want to remind people that often the best parts of life lie not in conveniences, but instead come from the unpredictable, the puzzling and the magical experience of two or more real-life human beings building a relationship,” Michael Giardina, vice president of marketing in the U.S. for parent company William Grant & Sons, told Adweek. “No AI chatbot can compete with our lovely Elliot, who can describe classic works of art with a curated cocktail pairing or write you a Victorian sonnet.”

Elliot, described as a “five-year university student” but more likely an actor, hosted the virtual talk with consumers recently, spouting a few verses of Lewis Carroll’s “Jabberwocky,” greeting visitors in several languages and suggesting cake for lunch. 

Hendrick’s promised that Elliot would “happily reply to your curious queries until he becomes too tired or too peckish to continue,” with assistance provided only from a dictionary or “his brainy sister Helen.”

As a “corporeal, fallible being,” Elliot did not claim to be all-knowing during the experiment, billed as “the first-ever chatbot run by humans and fueled by Hendrick’s.” But he managed to bat back such broad volleys as “who are any of us” with responses like, “We are all bundles of carbon, aren’t we?”

The stubbornly analog approach is perfectly on-brand for the Scottish gin maker, which emphasizes its laborious production process and carries that theme through its marketing.

The company has established a Department of Not-So-Convenient Technology, responsible for a previous products called the Horatio (a “smart” speaker with a steampunk vibe that was manual, not voice activated) and a “tranquil alternative” to a streaming service that played only ambient nature sounds. 

Earlier this year, the brand offered to take its 133-foot blimp out of storage for a low-and-slow trip to Super Bowl 57. The CucumbAir, which “sips fuel and gobbles time” and tops out at 35 mph, could have arrived in Arizona “one to several days after the Big Game.” 

Alas, at a price range from $750,000 to $1.2 million, there were a few interested parties but ultimately no takers, per the brand, which says the airship could still take flight in the future. 

Chat G&T was “the natural next chapter,” according to Giardina, who called Elliot the “perfectly imperfect human alternative” to “too efficient” technology. “While helpful at times, AI lacks the personal connection and spontaneity inherent in human interaction, which makes life all the more interesting.”