A dreary rainstorm and a friend's apparent death might not seem like promising raw materials for an uplifting ad. But this one takes place in Ireland, so it all makes sense. The two-and-a-half minute spot for Tullamore Dew Irish Whiskey was made by New York ad agency Opperman Weiss and directed by Laurence Dunmore of RSA Films. It features four friends all dressed up and trudging through the gloriously bleak countryside of Ireland, bottle of booze in hand, seeming to eulogize a fallen friend by singing the Irish folk song "A Parting Glass." Lovely stuff. Fast Company has an interview with creative director Paul Opperman, who says the men recorded the song in Saint Kevin's, the stone church in the film, known for its great acoustics. The film tries to capture what Irish music is like, he adds—"that sense of both melancholy and victory at the same time."
