Laphroaig whisky and Willem Dafoe mix great taste with the poetic

“Like kissing a mermaid in a rocky rowboat on a lively sea.”
“My brother says it’s like mud in a bottle.”
“Makes you think about tar and welly boots.”

That’s Willem Dafoe, tasting whisky, or maybe performing a small piece of existential theatre. Either way, it’s impossible to look away. It’s strange, poetic, and absolutely, unmistakably Laphroaig.

In the brand’s new campaign film, Dafoe’s gravelly delivery and knowing smirk pull you into a world where tasting notes sound more like performance art. It’s part monologue, part meditation, and a perfect continuation of Laphroaig’s long-standing creative platform, “Opinions Welcome”, a campaign so distinctive it would’ve been madness to drop it.

Because Laphroaig isn’t trying to please everyone. It never has. This is a whisky that knows exactly what it is: bold, smoky, medicinal, unapologetically divisive, and proud of it.

Dafoe is a spot-on match. He’s made a career out of playing the unpredictable; characters that are complex, uncomfortable, and magnetic. 

His performances, like the whisky, aren’t designed for mass appeal. They’re designed to make you feel something. You don’t just watch Dafoe; you experience him. You don’t just sip Laphroaig; you argue about it, dissect it, and maybe end up loving it precisely because it’s not easy.

In a luxury landscape where brands still chase flawless polish, Laphroaig’s commitment to imperfection feels radical. Any brand can tell you it’s the best…and the majority do; “Smoothest ever.” “Finest blend.”

It’s marketing by megaphone: loud, shallow, and desperate for validation.

Laphroaig is self-aware, a little wild, and completely comfortable in its own smoke. It says: "We know we’re weird. We taste like sea spray, iodine, maybe even burnt tyres. Some people love us. Some people don’t. And that’s OK."

That’s what real authenticity looks like: awareness, humility, and the confidence to let the product speak, flaws and all. People are flawed. Products are flawed. Brands should be too.

The ones brave enough to embrace that, to lean into what makes them divisive, are the ones who end up truly loved.

And while Harrison Ford may be gazing nobly over the Highlands for Glenmorangie, Dafoe and Laphroaig are doing something far bolder, standing in the wind, laughing about the tar and welly boots, and turning imperfection into art.