• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, September 30, 2016

As part of its 150th anniversary celebration, Jack Daniel’s has launched a series of videos, from Arnold Worldwide, that pay tribute to the unique residents of JD’s unique hometown, Lynchburg, Tenn. 

The anthem spot for the “Our Town” campaign (below) is set in a verdant field, with fiddle music in the background.

It shows actual citizens of the town (population 6,400), quite a few of whom are employed by the distillery. 

The video first highlights folks who were born in Lynchburg, ones who are fifth-generation, ones who have served in the military, and ones who are descendants of Jack Daniel’s himself. Individuals are also spotlighted, including a woman named Hiawatha Kitty McGee, a man who can lift a 526-pound barrel of whiskey, and a woman who hails from Taiwan. 

The anthem ends with this voiceover messaging: “This is our town. For 150 years, the home of Jack Daniel’s. If you can’t get here, just look for one of our postcards. We send them all over. They look like this...” An image of a hand holding up a bottle of JD comes on the screen.

The 30-second version of the anthem is running as a TV spot. The anthem videos and two 15-second videos — one focusing on the man who can lift the 526-pound barrel, and the other on the “postcard” theme — are all viewable on Jack Daniel’s YouTube channel. 

The ads are also being featured on the Brown-Forman brand’s other social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter.

The stories were designed to reinforce an emotional connection with the Jack Daniel’s faithful.

"When you look at Jack Daniel’s’ advertising history, all the way back to the inception of their ‘Postcards from Lynchburg’ print campaign in the 1950s, it was always most powerful when the work felt less like an ad and more like an exchange — like the people at the Jack Daniel’s Distillery were just talking to you, directly and sincerely,” explained Wade Devers, Arnold Worldwide’s managing partner and executive creative director. “’Our Town’ is a modern take on that concept, and is the first of many stories to come that will honor the truth behind the brand and the people who proudly craft it."

The brand’s marketing team launched its anniversary celebration on July 1 with a three-month global hunt for 150 hidden whiskey barrels.