From Ryan Reynolds to Salma Hayek, celebrities are getting deep into the liquor trade—as owners and endorsers. But you won’t find a sparkling famous person in the new ads for Tito’s Handmade Vodka.

Instead, you’ll find a rickety but charming spokescart.

The Austin, Texas-based vodka brand today launches its first-ever brand platform, “With Tito’s,” anchored by four new commercials from agency Arts & Letters Creative Co. The hero character in each spot is a drinks cart that mysteriously pops up out of nowhere just when you’d like a drink—making any situation a little better.

Say you’re in the bathtub, just minding your own business...

Or maybe you’re at the dog park, where it’s not just the dogs who come bounding over to you...

The spots end with the on-screen line “The good gets great with Tito’s.”

Taylor Berry, VP of brand marketing at Tito’s, said the goal of the spots—directed by Luisa Kracht through production company Madrefoca—is to differentiate the brand based on its personality, following years of focusing more on the product.

“Whether it’s vodka or spirits overall, it’s a crowded category. It feels like every day there’s a new celebrity brand being launched,” Berry told Ad Age. “We’ve always focused on the product, but on top of that, we’ve had success with people connecting to the brand. We want people to feel like this brand has a personality and isn’t just something made in a lab.” 

That personality is more humble and welcoming than its competitors, said Brett Simone, creative director at Arts & Letters. And so, the endorser should be, too.

“So many spirits brands are trying to tell you who to be, or what lifestyle to live. That’s not something Tito’s has ever been about,” Simone said. “It’s very much a ‘Come as you are’ kind of brand. So instead of going the celebrity spokesperson route, we thought about how to bring the brand to life metaphorically in a different way.”

Thus, the spokescart was born—a quirky character that physically embodies Tito’s brand promise of adding joy to everyday situations, with a wink. In the spot below, for instance, the cart is seen literally walking—well, rolling—on water as it brings deliverance to a pair of overheated pool loungers. 

The cart does more than deliver drinks. It adds bath bombs to your tub, throws tennis balls for the dogs, shades you with an umbrella and—in the ad below—adds logs to a fire for a chilly pair of campers.

“Beyond driving up and delivering a drink, we wanted to think about other ways the moment could be better,” said Simone. “We wanted to give this cart a personality like it’s traveling the world, stopping at nothing to bring you good times.” 

The personality extends to the cart’s fabrication, which has a handmade quality to it, much like the product it doles out.

“The brand’s always been laid back and welcoming and warm,” Simone said. “We wanted the cart to embody that in every way. It doesn’t rumble down the road like it just rolled off an assembly line. It’s a little rickety. It’s a little imperfect. It’s charming, and that’s how Tito’s as a spirits brand is.” 

The new spots will run on social and digital. Berry said the company is also considering ways to extend the cart into real-world activations. “One of the things we’ve been talking about is, could we show up at someone’s wedding and have it make cocktails for everyone?” he said.

In the bigger picture, Berry said it was time for a unifying brand platform for Tito’s—and that the “With Tito’s” theme will extend well beyond these launch spots.

“We’ve had fun making things like ‘Tito’s in a Can’ over the past few years, working with Arts & Letters,” he said. “What we wanted was to coalesce all our messaging together, instead of having one-offs. This allows us to have connective tissue, from the advertising and media space to what’s on the floor in a grocery store or a liquor store or bar. It will give us consistency across the different marketing channels that we operate in.” 

Tito’s is the No. 1 spirits brand in the U.S. by retail dollars, according to liquor trade publication Shanken News Daily. It grew volumes by an estimated 5% in 2023.