Ridley Scott Directs First Ad for 15 Years

Ridley Scott is to return to advertising, directing his first commercial in over 15 years. It’ll be for the world’s best-selling cognac brand Hennessy, was created with DDB Paris and will premiere globally in early 2019. 

According to a press release launched today, the director of Alien, Blade Runner and Gladiator has crafted “an epic visual journey that explores seven taste-scapes in a surreal, sensory narrative”. Scott’s production company RSA Films, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, produced the film, which will be the focal point of the ‘Each drop of Hennessy X.O is an Odyssey’ campaign. 

"I'm very pleased to partner with Hennessy for my first commercial in 15 years,” Scott says. “From the very beginning, the project has been about the creative process. I saw the initial script and it immediately triggered something in me. I started scribbling and those scribbles turned into a detailed storyboard and a productive visit in the Cognac region. I loved partnering with Hennessy as the creative process was an absolute priority throughout. The result is not simply advertising, it's entertainment. We are now in post production with an ingenious CGI team and I am looking forward to the official launch in 2019."

Thomas Moradpour, global CMO for Hennessy, adds: “Luxury appeal is about emotion, it's about building a dream. Who better than a world-creator like Ridley Scott for Hennessy X.O, the iconic flagship of our range, the Original X.O? His mastery and imagination are unsurpassed, he will capture our audience's hearts and minds.”

The 'Worlds of Greatness' are, according to Hennessy, creative interpretations of each tasting note, described by the brand’s Comité de Dégustation as illustrations of Hennessy X.O's taste and feel: Sweet Notes, Rising Heat, Spicy Edge, Flowing Flame, Chocolate Lull, Wood Crunches. Culminating in Infinite Echo.

All seven notes evocatively take shape under the iconic filmmaker's direction, with his subversive sense of narrative and visual, unique light and his knack for radical, technical innovation. 

A series of seven 3D ads, created in collaboration with Berlin-based visual trend lab Foam Studio, will act as a precursor to the full film and will debut globally in Fall 2018. Foam has created seven emblematic tunnels, ultimately leading to Scott's complete Odyssey, revealed in 2019. The sensorial visual work embodies each one of the seven distinct flavour notes of Hennessey X.O in a tactile, hyper-graphic and poetic visual, that hovers between reality and the mythical.