Schweppes serves up 'Knapsack bartender' campaign, encouraging fearless cocktail mixing

The 'Cocktail revolution' campaign provides drinkers with new ways of creating cocktails. In the latest 12-minute Knapsack bartender video (above), Vice’s Jordon Radaeli is seen travelling to La Paz, Bolivia, where he meets a pair of women who 'wrestle' each other (in the choreographed style of 'professional' wrestling) for tourists.

Here, he is introduced to the world’s strongest alcohol, the 96 per cent Caiman liquor, which comes in industrial-style metal boxes and is known as ‘firewater’ among the locals. Following a particularly gruelling match, Radaeli attempts to make peace between the women wrestlers by inventing a cocktail based on Caiman liquor. (Step 1: Lighting the drink to reduce the alcohol content.)

In the prior episode, Radaeli visited a tiny Romanian village and hung out with the Cazan family, master brewers of Palinka, a tequila-like drink. In episode one, which launched in September, he travelled to Freetown in Sierra Leone to learn about the mystical properties of a drink called Poyo. The last episode is slated for January.

With the campaign, Schweppes is hoping to change the way consumers think about cocktails while reducing the intimidation associated with mixing drinks. “We want to empower consumers with knowledge and inspiration to engage in cocktail making,” said Ben Goss, Schweppes senior brand manager. The campaign is being promoted across digital, social, TV, outdoor, in-store, experiential and PR.

Vice Media is a media company that dabbles in books, film, print, TV, advertising and online video. Last year, Sir Martin Sorrell reportedly bought a stake in the company.