Agave spirits advertising is an interesting field, particularly because glossy ads and PR campaigns are responsible for why tequila and mezcal have become so popular. Plenty of the big brands were savvy to the power of advertising even in their early days.

One example is Sauza tequila and in this ad from 1989, I’m going to put my copywriting hat on and examine what makes the ad copy so interesting and directs readers towards buying into Sauza and their products.

Copy overview

ANYTHING ELSE IS FOOL’S GOLD.

When it comes to premium tequila, it’s easy to be fooled by the label. A gold label does not always mean a naturally gold tequila. Sauza Conmemorativo is a naturally aged gold product. This means we don’t add artificial caramel colour.

For over a century, the Sauza family has been perfecting the remarkable smoothness of Conmemorativo honestly.

At Sauza, we put our gold inside the bottle instead of just on it. So, if you want the finest premium natural gold tequila, just look for our unique brown bottle.

Branding associations and emotional resonance

• Authenticity: The main idea of this ad is that Sauza tequila produces an authentic product that is free of additives. As a rule of thumb before any copywriting gets done, it’s always better to have a simple idea instead of a clever one and this is a good example of the former.
• Premiumisation: In my opinion, Sauza tequila was ahead of its time in terms of positioning tequila as a premium product long before craft tequilas and mezcals became a point of advertising pride like they are today. As this ad came out in 1989, it was only a few years before tequila became bastardised as a low-grade shot drink that stuck with the category throughout the ‘90s and early 2000s.
• Humility: The bright brand colours are offset by the straightforward copy. The Sauza family are positioned as passionate underdogs dedicated to their craft, constantly perfecting their recipe over a century.

Drink To That is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Copy takeaways

Make your play on words relevant

Usually, I’m not a fan of puns or fluffy metaphors like ‘anything else is fool’s gold.’ But if there’s one thing that’s true of copywriting, there’s always exceptions…

And in this example, I think the line works because it’s so specific to what’s being talked about. The whole idea of the ad is to focus on the authentic gold tequila that Sauza produces and tell it apart from tequila brands that cut corners.

As a result, the headline lends additional credibility to this idea.

Keep it simple, stupid

It’s worth repeating. The best ideas are the simplest.

And that goes for the copy written for those ideas. Each line of the ad naturally follows on from the other, making sure the reader can follow. For example, the sentence ‘Sauza Conmemorativo is a naturally aged gold product’ might make sense to a tequila connoisseur.

But it’d probably make a casual drinker unfamiliar with different tequila categories scratch their head and make them feel lost.

The next line ‘This means we don’t add artificial caramel colour’ tells the consumer exactly what they need to know to understand the last sentence.