I have to give them kudos on this idea, although I’m sorry to say I think it could have been accomplished better. But the fact that they did it at all is great! And it would have cost a fortune to make it work better.
Many people probably don’t even know who Busby Berkeley is anymore, and I’d bet even less know who Loie Fuller is, but they’re both well represented in this spot. The only problem with making an ad for an alcoholic beverage based upon Busby Berkeley’s work is that he killed two people and injured five others in a drunk driving accident. (Source: Wikipedia, although I knew the basics already from other sources I no longer remember.) But hey: hardly anybody remembers that anymore, so what the hell, right?
But I do like this ad, and I really like what they were trying to do with it visually, especially with the nods to Loie Fuller in the long drapery: an extremely nice touch.
Here’s the Busby Berkeley Bailey’s Bash:
And here’s the Wikipedia page for Busby Berkeley:
And here’s the Wikipedia page for La Loie (Loie Fuller: one of the great geniuses of entertainment history! {No joke. She invented colored lighting gels, and lots of other stuff, as well as being the toast of Paris at the Folies Bergère.}):
