Grey Goose: Fly Beyond
”The extraordinary belongs to those who make it.”
The Commercial
My Take
This ad is about establishing the Grey Goose brand as a symbol of excellence, of masterful craftsmanship, of simplicity, of superiority, and of perfection.
The ad tells a story of triumph—a story of a French man that takes place in France; a story of a Frenchman acheiving the American Dream. When François, the man who developed the recipe for Grey Goose, first proposed the idea of making vodka in France, he was shunned from the country. It wasn’t until New Yorkers embraced his product that he succeeded. As an unsung hero, he’s easy for an audience to relate and empathize with.
Americans and the French notoriously don’t get along when it comes to culture. Americans view the French as snooty and pompous, while the French view Americans as uncultured. This ad plays on that notion with a sense of irony. Drink Grey Goose, it’s what the cultured people do.
Grey Goose is a premium, luxurious product, and this ad wants that to be clear. However, there’s often a stigma associated with luxurious products: are they really worth the premium price tag? Can the extra money be justified? Is buying luxury goods elitist? Etcetera, etcetera. This ad hopes to destigmatize luxury and make people proud to have purchased the best of the best.
Like many of the best ads, Grey Goose is able to associate luxury and quality with impeccable craftsmanship, and thus with hard work. This association is core to the ad’s message. Good craftsmanship is the result of hard work, and when hard work creates luxury, it’s okay to buy luxurious goods without feeling guilty. There’s nothing wrong with supporting hard work, right? That’s how the ad wants you to feel.
So What?
Consumers are becoming more and more aware of the notion of scarcity. Time is scarce. Money is scarce. Attention is scarce. And, most importantly, choices are scarce.
The concepts of “less is more” and of “quality over quantity” are becoming more and more mainstream in today’s consumers. We can’t all afford Grey Goose, but Grey Goose represents something that every American strives for: quality.
Being able to buy a product and feel proud of it is an incredibly powerful emotion. People don’t want to buy a lot, they simply want their purchases to count. What consumers buy says a lot about who they are as people. Our possessions help us tell our stories; and it sure is nice when our possessions have stories of their own.
As someone who thinks a lot about products and consumer behavior, I often think in terms of stories.
The consumer has a story and the product has a story. The goal is to make the stories mesh.
When a product is sold as a story that fits perfectly into the story that the consumer uses to depict their life—their values, ambitions, and desires—then the consumer is left feeling that they simply must have the product, otherwise, their story would be incomplete.
The Copy
Do I remember? How could I forget?
When François Thibault said he was going to make vodka in France, in Cognac no less, with spring water, and the best French wheat, everyone here said: “non, non, non… we don’t like change around here.”
You wouldn’t believe what happened…
But little by little, the world got to love what he had made. True to his world, he did indeed create a vodka that tasted like no other.
Grey Goose, François?
The extraordinary belongs to those who make it.
Fly Beyond!
Grey Goose, the world’s best tasting vodka.
