The campaign, entitled 'Damn Right Your Dad Drank It', features retro imagery from the 1960s and 70s, with provocative taglines that remind consumers that their dads were once the epitome of cool, style and unabashed masculinity — and that they chose to represent these traits through their drink of choice: whisky cocktails made with Canadian Club.

In support of CC and its new brand platform, Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc. is supporting the campaign with a significant increase in its advertising and promotional spend. Beginning this month, the campaign - the first multi-layered advertising campaign for the whisky brand in more than two years - includes consumer print, out-of-home and radio advertising, experiential and viral elements, point-of-sale items and in-market events that will continue throughout the brand’s 150th anniversary in 2008. Print ads will run in Maxim, Toronto Life, NOW and Eye Weekly magazines, with placements in other key publications throughout 2008.

Sparked by the brewing backlash against a dandy-and-delicate spate of cocktails that have, in some views, overstayed their welcome, 'Damn Right' challenges consumers to embrace their dads’ classic masculinity, with humorous taglines such as 'Your Dad Never Tweezed Anything', and 'Your Mom Wasn’t Your Dad’s First'. In launching 'Damn Right', CC invited Beam Global employees, as well as employees of Maxxium - distributor of Canadian Club in Canada - to search their photo albums and submit images that epitomize the era. Many of these photos are included in 'Damn Right' advertising and point-of-sale elements. In particular, the first ad execution, 'Your Mom Wasn’t Your Dad’s First' and several point-of-sale materials feature vintage photos of a mid-late 20s Dan Tullio - Canadian Club’s current global brand ambassador.

“This is the most exciting brand communication for Canadian Club in years,” says Dorene Wharton, global brands manager, Canada, Beam Global Spirits & Wine Inc., “It is anchored in a sentiment that resonates with all our consumers; people who appreciate the notion of timeless masculinity embodied in a masculine, classic cocktail.” Wharton adds the 'Damn Right' idea tested extremely well in Canada with consumers in their mid-20s, as well as those 30-plus.

The campaign was developed by BBDO Chicago. It launched last month in the U.S..