Liquor giant Diageo will make its Super Bowl debut with an ad for Crown Royal whisky. The company has bought a 30-second spot tentatively slated for the third quarter. Anomaly will handle the ad with Jake Scott directing.

The marketer is the first liquor brand to seize on the opportunity created last year when Anheuser-Busch InBev gave up its long-held alcohol ad exclusivity for the game. Molson Coors confirmed last year that it would be in the Feb. 12 game on Fox.

Diageo’s Super Bowl entry is years in the making. The company in 2021 struck a landmark deal to become the NFL’s first-ever spirits sponsor. That came four years after Diageo was among the first liquor brands to run ads during games after the NFL in 2017 lifted its ban against in-game spirits ads.

The Super Bowl—which typically draws around 100 million viewers—will give Diageo, and Crown Royal, its largest TV audience ever. 

Crown Royal will use the moment to plug the whisky’s heritage and longtime marketing positioning around gratitude said Sophie Kelly, Diageo’s senior VP for whiskeys in North America. She declined to reveal creative details other than the spot will feature a celebrity who is a longtime Crown Royal drinker.

“It’s going to be a continued message of good and gratitude, which will be in keeping with the brand,” said Kelly during a Zoom interview from Los Angeles, where the brand is currently shooting the ad. “It will be educational, it will be humorous, and we are hoping … it will make people smile, and feel really good about the brand and be something that we believe is something that only Crown could say as a whisky brand.”

Crown’s messaging around gratitude and generosity dates back to 1939, when King George VI and Queen Elizabeth became the first reigning monarchs to visit Canada. A Canadian spirits entrepreneur meticulously crafted a whisky fit for royalty as a gift, outfitting it in a regal purple bag with gold stitching, as told on the brand’s website. 

That purple bag remains a key part of Crown Royal’s marketing today, often used in purpose-driven marketing programs such as the “Purple Bag Project,” in which the brand ships purple bag care packages to U.S. military personnel. 

“The purpose of the brand is all around inspiring generosity [and], the actual physical packaging … is iconic and embodies the notion of gifting,” Kelly said.

With its NFL marketing, Crown Royal has leaned into messages around moderation, including encouraging people to take time outs to drink water while they drink alcohol. More recently the brand has run programs aimed to help workers who are involved with NFL games, including those that help with fan experiences. For example, it partnered with Uber Eats to match tips up to $5 given to delivery drivers for orders made within one hour of kickoff for Sunday games.

Such moderation and charitable efforts will continue to sound the brand’s Super Bowl marketing, Kelly said.

Other agencies involved in the campaign include VaynerMedia for social media, Taylor for PR and NVE for experiential.

The brand’s social strategy does not include Twitter ad buys, Kelly confirmed. Twitter buys have come under scrutiny in the wake of Elon Musk’s takeover of the company, which prompted some brands to pause spending as they assess brand safety risks.

It is “not a super intense point for us because Twitter was not a big platform for us,” Kelly said.