Brian Cox Skates Into Malibu’s Fantasy World

With temperatures finally on the rise in the UK, our Ad Of The Week this week basks in its laidback, summery, relaxed vibes. Classic drinks brand Malibu – a staple of British cocktail cabinets for decades – is reintroducing itself to the public with help from agency Wieden + Kennedy London and actor Brian Cox, who stars as a frustrated CEO in a nod to his recent role in streaming hit Succession.

Cox is chairing a tiresome meeting as the clock ticks toward 5PM. He gazes wistfully out of the window into a cloudy sky, seeing a cocktail take shape, and as 5 O’Clock comes around he rises from his seat, leaves the office, and takes to the street in a dapper red suit and a pair of roller skates. Skating along the boulevard, past pastel and neon-coloured beach-goers, blissing out to the retro sounds of Len’s “Steal Your Sunshine”, Cox is a surreal but entertaining figure.

His joy is threatened when his phone buzzes – it’s work calling him. Infuriated, Cox simply drops the phone in a cocktail bucket and skates on. Finally we see him relaxing, Malibu in hand, and the ad finishes with his advice – “Clock off to the beach” – and the tagline “Do Whatever Tastes Good”.

Behind the story is a genuine issue – addressed in a tongue in cheek way. Malibu is keen to encourage work-life balance, and is hoping to strike a chord with the millions of people who really would like to clock off and ignore the phone out of work hours. Being ‘always on’ is the enemy of achieving the state of relaxation Malibu wants to promote here.

But it’s safe to say that’s not the main takeaway for most viewers, who find the ad funny, surprising, and relatable in a more general way. The key associations for viewers, according to the Test Your Ad Pro results, are “Drinks”, “Beach”, “Malibu” and “Fun”, all highly positive. W+K London and Malibu have created an ad that conjures up a world around the brand, springing out of the beach culture associations of the name. It’s a gloriously visualised fantasy land that audiences are keen to spend time in.

That’s reflected by the Exceptional Star Rating the ad gets – a 5.1-Star, putting Malibu into the top bracket of all the ad’s we’ve tested. It’s a particularly strong showing for a spirits ad, a category where evocations of a party lifestyle can often leave audiences feeling alienated or excluded. But the comic performance of Cox, and the over-the-top nature of the ad’s world, mean Malibu dodge this potential trap with an excellent commercial.

The ad also scores an Exceptional rating on short-term Spike, predicting sales boosts for the drinks brand as well as the long-term growth forecast by the 5-Star score. And Malibu gets a strong Brand Fluency score showing the vast majority of viewers are connecting the ad to the brand quickly and easily.

It’s a well-crafted ad with a strong sense of place and a lot of humanity, and the nostalgic but upbeat soundtrack is the paper umbrella in the poolside cocktail. Malibu is a brand with strong nostalgic associations, and this ad doesn’t avoid them, but it does create a new environment for the brand to operate in, one that feels familiar to viewers but also fresh.