Courvoisier has launched its first global campaign in nearly two decades, and it is set somewhere premium spirits brands rarely film: an ordinary house party. “Pass The Courvoisier,” created by BBDO Paris for owner Campari Group, follows a single bottle as it moves from room to room at a party in Atlanta, linking conversations and guests along the way.
The one-minute film is directed by Ibra Ake, who won a Grammy in 2019 for his work on Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” video. The campaign runs across TV, out-of-home, retail, social and live events. It opened in New York this week with “The Living Room,” a conversation series on culture and hospitality hosted by former 106 & Park presenters Terrence J and Rocsi Diaz, followed by “House of Courvoisier,” a phone-free party cohosted by Fun With Friends and Missing Ingredient.
A hook the brand already owned
The name comes from Busta Rhymes’ 2002 hit “Pass the Courvoisier, Part II,” featuring P. Diddy and Pharrell. Press reports at the time credited the track with lifting the brand’s sales by as much as 30%. More than twenty years later, Courvoisier is formally adopting a line that hip-hop culture gave it.
That is a sharp piece of brand archaeology. Older drinkers recognise the phrase instantly, and the house-party setting gives it a fresh context for younger ones who may never have heard the original.
Why the living room
The bigger change is the setting. Premium spirits advertising has long leaned on rooftop bars, velvet lounges and bottle service. Courvoisier is aiming at how younger adults socialise now: more often at home, less often in expensive venues, and with closer attention to what they spend.
The brand says nearly a third of consumers want more intimate at-home gatherings over the next year. A Censuswide survey it commissioned of 2,500 people aged 21 to 50 in the UK and US found that 60% formed some of their best memories in other people’s homes, and one in five made a lifelong friend at a house party.
The phone-free event follows the same logic. Experiential marketing has been drifting toward offline formats that offer something a feed cannot, and a party where nobody films anything is about as direct a version of that as a brand can stage.
The pressure behind the party
The campaign lands at a difficult moment for cognac: Rémy Cointreau has cut its outlook more than once on weak US and Chinese demand, and the wider spirits category is still unwinding its pandemic-era boom. Campari paid $1.17 billion for Courvoisier, completing the deal in 2024, and the brand’s sales slipped 1% year on year in the six months to June 2026. Growth in Campari’s cognac and champagne unit came mainly from South Africa and Asia-Pacific, with the US holding steady.
What to watch
The open question is whether a campaign rooted in American hip-hop nostalgia lands in South Africa and Asia-Pacific, the markets currently carrying Courvoisier’s growth. Hip-hop’s global reach suggests it could. If US demand stays flat, though, Campari will have spent its first global push in two decades persuading a home market that is simply drinking less.
Source: Marketing Dive
