Mila Kunis - Whiskey Business
Mila Kunis was perhaps a surprise appointment as the face of Jim Beam but it's really made sense!
Since Kunis signed on as the sultry face of Beam’s ad campaigns, events and social media platforms in 2013, sales volume has spiked 24%. It is tough to pinpoint how much growth is directly related to the actor’s influence, but Team Beam are confident they have a winning formula with Kunis in the mix.
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Kunis admits she was only a casual whiskey fan before signing on with Beam. She acquired a taste for it from her rye drinking husband, actor Ashton Kutcher, in the form of a scotch-based Penicillin cocktail. Gradually Kunis came to enjoy bourbon over rocks, and she subscribes to Beam’s theory that the female market is underserved.
“There’s an emptiness in the market for females promoting brown spirits,” says Kunis. “I see women promoting wine and ultra-feminine drinks, and I think whiskey is not any less feminine. I wanted to open that door and say it’s OK for women to order a whiskey and be just as empowered as if she ordered a Cosmo.”
For Kunis, her decision to sign with Beam was bigger than a paycheck and admits to being drawn in by the Beam family's southern charm. After touring the distillery and having her first serious bourbon experience, she visited Noe at his home on a tree lined street, coined "distillers row," in Bardstown, Kentucky. Noe's garage was converted into a tricked out man-cave, where Fred and Mila shared some of the planet's rarest pre-prohibition bourbon from Noe's private stash; it’s little wonder Kunis stuck around.
“I didn’t want to work for a company that I couldn’t wrap my head around. There was a man named Jim Beam behind this, and here is his great-grandson (points to Fred). He’s not just a fictional character, and it’s not just a machine that makes bourbon. It’s real craftsmanship. Even if Jim Beam is part of a larger company, it's still a grounded, beautiful family culture, and I wanted to be a part of it. It made me appreciate the spirit that much more.”
