Wild Turkey Isn’t Changing a Damn Thing – Here’s Why

‘Stick or twist’ is the challenge facing legacy brands.

Either double down on the things that made the brand memorable in the first place, or reinvent; each choice brave in its own right. Lately, we’ve been seeing our fair share of those choosing to twist, and landing in a place that doesn’t really… stick.

Kentucky whiskey brand Wild Turkey has decided to stick. Leaning hard on the stuff that made it, it.

It’s been over a hundred years since Thomas Ripy built the Old Hickory Distillery in Kentucky. Following Prohibition, it was rebuilt to produce bourbon once more. The family-made liquid gold would move from the distillery to a number of wholesalers who would bottle it under their own brands.

It was an executive of one particular wholesaler, Thomas McCarthy, who, while on a wild turkey hunting trip in 1940, enjoyed some samples with friends, who then continued to ask him for “that wild turkey bourbon”.

‘When You Know It’s Right, Don’t Change a Damn Thing’ is the brand’s first global campaign since 2021, featuring films honouring the timeless and the enduring, celebrating classics like Wild Turkey 101 Bourbon, which has remained unchanged in its bold flavour for decades.

From the creative minds at GUT New York and directed by Kiku Ohe, it integrates film, photos, and artefacts, featuring cameos from three generations of the Russell family, whose care and skill have carried the brand through to the 21st century.

At the heart of the story is Wild Turkey master distiller and Bourbon Hall of Fame-er, Jimmy Russell, who “helped save bourbon from a fate worse than death: becoming like everything else.”

Chief creative officer at GUT NY, Lucas Bongioanni says the head copy is more than a slogan, “It’s a pledge to not fold to fleeting trends and continue delivering the exceptional whiskey Wild Turkey has been known for.”

Lucas says nowadays the world seems obsessed with chasing “newer and better”, and that somewhere in the midst of all that, “people are craving the time-honoured, the tested, and the true." He explains that decades ago, when consumer trends were moving toward lighter spirits, Jimmy Russell made the choice to not change a damn thing, “and it made Wild Turkey into the icon it is today.”

It's a sentiment echoed by Raul Gonzalez, managing director of House of Whiskey and Rum at Campari (who acquired the Wild Turkey brand and distillery back in 2009). “Wild Turkey has remained faithful to the same recipe for more than 100 years, and it was important to us to bring that story to life. Every bottle of Wild Turkey reflects heritage and pride, and our goal is to share that story more broadly around the world.”

When asked about what a campaign like this commits a brand to in practice, and how they’ll judge the success with new legal-age drinkers without diluting what loyalists love, Raul says it comes down to the core message. “For long-time fans, there’s a pride in ordering Wild Turkey, and we believe that message will extend that feeling to new consumers as well.” He adds that this angle “gives us the opportunity to share our brand’s legacy and conviction, and we hope newer bourbon drinkers will be inspired to try Wild Turkey by learning more about the heritage that makes it so enduring.”

The two-minute film marries 8mm/35mm/digital with archival artefacts and a literal line drawn on the ground. When it came down to the non-negotiables, protecting Jimmy’s story was concrete bound.

Lucas from GUT says, “Jimmy Russell is an icon…But even more than that, he’s a real person, with incredible experiences and a true sense of conviction that we wanted to honour”.

That meant the team left “plenty of beautiful footage on the cutting room floor.” They had a wealth of footage of landscapes, textures, and distillery elements to choose from, but narrowed in and removed anything that wasn’t core to Jimmy’s real accounts.

“To do that, we dialled-up the period elements in dressing and costume, and made allusions to Japanese and Australian bars that are based on Jimmy’s real experiences travelling.” Lucas adds, “The archival photos gave us pieces of real history to touch on.

And most impactful of all, we feature Jimmy’s real family members in the bar and in additional assets to tell the story of how he’s passed this recipe and sense of conviction to the next generation.”

It’s easy to get knotted up in the newness tsunami, but sometimes the answer has been staring you in the face all along, the fact that, as Lucas puts it, “You had it right the first time.”