Flicking through The Spectator magazine over the weekend (a perfect publication to hit the premium alcohol beverage drinking demographic) I came across two ads printed on opposite sides of the same piece of paper. Two print ads.

Two different spirits. One gin and one single malt.

Two different creative treatments.

One success.

One failure.

I've included both ads marked up so you can come to your own view. Drinks advertising is not difficult. Most importantly you need to convey a sense of appetite in the target customer. It's about the liquid in the bottle and here the No 3 Gin trumps Glenfarclas.

If only it was just that - but Glenfarclas commits crime after crime with this advertising. A creative which takes every Single Malt Whisky cliche, dumbs them down, places them in an instantly forgettable and drab context and uses a bottle shot presumably taken with the final shot in a roll of film left over from a 1977 holiday to Dunoon.

Dreadful and certainly it made me yearn for a gin and tonic.