Butterfly Cannon, the creative agency behind some of the UK’s biggest drinks brand marketing, has overseen the launch of a new apple calvados which aims to disrupt the category with its bold and irreverent take on a classic drink.
Bad Appel, which is intended to be enjoyed as a cocktail rather than a shorter after dinner drink, has been created with a messaging and design aimed at younger audiences than a typical calvados brand may attract.
As well as working on the bottle’s unique design, Butterfly Cannon was instrumental in devising the full brand strategy and identity, including the naming, packaging and bespoke serpent-adorned bottle structure.
Made in Normandy’s Pays d’Auge, the home of brandy distillation, Bad Appel aims to tempt discerning drinkers away from more run-of-the-mill spirits. And the temptation starts on the bottle, where the legend of Adam and Eve, a serpent and that infamous apple set the scene.
An apothecary-style silhouette carries a coiled snake around its neck, while the legend of Adam and Eve’s forbidden-fruit encounter is interrupted by bold, hand-drawn red lettering. Classical illustration from renowned artist Steve Noble meets contemporary mischief: the brand’s collision of tradition and reinvention highlighting the contrast between old and new, good and bad, purity and temptation.
Bad Appel’s launch takes aim at a category barely on Britain’s drinks radar, with just 35% of UK adults having even heard of Calvados. And as drinkers move towards a preference for modern or new-to-market cocktails – up six percentage points to 17% – Bad Appel is the creative catalyst for something less expected.
As part of the drink’s launch, the brand is inviting bartenders to Corrupt the Classics: take a drink everyone thinks they know, pull at its edges, use the familiar as a jumping-off point for reinvention.
Meg Hesketh, design director at Butterfly Cannon, said: “The drinks category is having a momentous overhaul as younger consumers display a much more refined attitude to the drinks they choose. As a result branding has moved front and centre as producers ensure their products are as enticing on the eye as they are on the palette.
“Calvados has incredible provenance, but we knew that playing by the old insider rules wouldn’t work for a younger audience. Bad Appel takes the traditional codes of the category and completely subverts them. We’ve created a brand with no intention of behaving and in the packaging, a highly covetable object of intrigue – collectively the expression feels confident, urban, and deliberately provocative.”
Charles Marshall, founder of Bad Appel, said: “Working in creative partnership with Butterfly Cannon we’ve designed something truly unique – the branding is playful, provocative and beautifully artistic and, crucially, there is no chance this bottle will end up gathering dust at the back of a bar.”
“We are re-writing the rulebook for Calvados. This is no longer a drink sipped politely after supper, it’s a lively, flavoursome spirit that, thanks to Bad Appel, is about to get a much-needed kick up the arse.”
Source: Butterfly Cannon
You must be logged in to post a comment Login