Matthew McConaughey becomes face of Wild Turkey

Hollywood actor Matthew McConaughey has signed up to become the ambassador and creative director of Bourbon brand Wild Turkey.

Academy Award winner has signed a ‘multi-year’ deal to become creative director at Wild Turkey Bourbon (Photo: Wild Turkey)

The “multi-year” deal will see the Academy Award winner appear in advertising campaigns as well as overseeing creative assets for the Bourbon brand.

“I want to help share their unique story, starting with a new ad campaign that I feel really captures the special essence of this brand while introducing itself like never before,” McConaughey said.

The actor’s first Wild Turkey undertaking has been a short film which shows him visiting the Wild Turkey Distillery in Lawrenceburg, Kentucky, and spending time members of the Russell family, who make up Wild Turkey’s Master Distiller team.

“When making a movie, you have two hours to tell a story. Here I have 30 seconds to reintroduce the world to this authentic American brand that has helped shape an entire US industry, Bourbon,” McConaughey added.

In 2009 Wild Turkey was sold by Pernod Ricard for $575 million (£434m) to Italian drinks giant Gruppo Campari. Campari has invested heavily in the brand since the purchase, including building a $50m (£38m) distillery to boost production.

Melanie Batchelor, vice president of global marketing at Campari, spoke of the parallels between McConaughey and the Russell family. The actor first met the Bourbon-making family in 2014.

“Jimmy [Russell] has strong convictions,” she said. “He is someone who has never changed a recipe that is the same since he joined 62 years ago.

“He’s seen a lot of trends come and go but has stuck to his individual choices. That’s where we saw the parallel. Matthew has made a lot of individual choices in his career as well.”

Matthew McConaughey has previously worked as an ambassador for brands such as Lincoln, Dolce & Gabbana and the Peace Corps.

As reported in db, McConaughey was due to star in The Billionaire’s Vinegar, a film based on a book of the same name, which details one of the world’s most infamous wine frauds.

Based on Benjamin Wallace’s book of the same name, the film, whose release date is yet to be announced, details how in the 1980s wine collectors were duped into believing they were buying bottles of wine that had once belonged to US president Thomas Jefferson.

Escape Artists and Overbrook Entertainment have been developing the project for several years, with Will Smith set to produce the film.

See McConaughey’s Wild Turkey directorial debut below:

https://youtu.be/jmZZNbUsyt8