Excellently named Sarah Peachey works with ? What If ! innovation as a Producer Team Assistant. She put out the bat-signal for young creative writers, and set a challenge, “In the next five minutes, give me the story behind New Bohemian Whiskey.”
I wrote:
New Bohemian Whiskey was created after the now long-forgotten Riot Of Bohemia in 1867. Bohemian Whiskey (now known and reviled as Old Bohemian Whiskey) was said to be largely responsible for the riot, causing drunken debauchees to debase themselves in public, leading the more puritanical aspect of Bohemian society to violence. The mayhem lasted for three days, and culminated in the burning down of Ye Olde Bohemian Whiskey factory.
Bohemians, known for their open-mindedness and love of novel ideas, brought together a counsel to discuss what they should do. Montgomerie Von Boheme -a bohemian Bohemian and inventor- suggested they looked toward at the riot not as a disaster, but as the discovery of an extraordinary property of their Whiskey: it could affect people’s personalities when they drank it.
And so to the castle on the mountain top, where with an infusion of Barley, Lightning, Mad Science, Trial, Error and Shenanigans, Von Boheme enacted a series of experiments in balancing the various properties of Whiskey to make the drinker more intelligent, sophisticated, open-minded, genteel and humorous.
A year later he had perfected his Whiskey, and thus New Bohemian Whiskey was born. To this day, it promises to be the Artisan’s Choice and is a sumptuous sobriquet for social lubricant.
Sarah passed on my efforts, and got back to me saying they were excited to offer me the role. I was delighted, and had the opportunity to work with ? What If ! on backstory and brand development for one of the most prestigious whisky labels in Europe.
Over the course of a 19 hour day, I travelled to the capital to participate in workshopping and idea generation, brand development and conceptual development in an attempt to bottle the zeitgeist and sell it back to a generation who see Whisky as an ‘old person’s drink’. I’m looking forward to seeing the results, and had a great time working with such likeminded, proactive people.