After James Marsden landed the role of Cyclops in the 2000 blockbuster film X-Men, he toasted the then-biggest milestone of his career with the priciest whisky the actor could afford, Macallan 12 Year Old.
“I wanted to commemorate that moment by having something very special,” Marsden recalled in an interview with Fast Company. “It’s not something I do often, toasting my achievements. But I felt very proud and wanted to remember the moment.”
Marsden has played the mutant superhero role in three subsequent live-action Marvel films and is poised to do so again in Avengers:Doomsday, which is scheduled to be released in December 2026. This year, the Sonic the Hedgehog and 27 Dresses star finds himself sipping Macallan yet again, this time as a paid pitchman in a new advertising spot called “Drink of a Generation.” The campaign will run on Instagram, where Macallan says ages 25 to 34 are the most-reached demographic.
Ahead of Father’s Day, which is a popular gift-giving occasion for Scotch, the ad’s copy leans into the intergenerational theme, with Marsden noting that his father has “a love for the finer things.” But halfway through, it is the appearance of his Gen Z-aged son, Jack, that points to a bigger industry theme.
Scotch’s spokespeople are finally getting younger.
“What we need to ensure is that we are relevant and that we continue talking to a younger generation and bring them into our story,” Marcelo Colombo, senior vice president of marketing for the Americas business of Macallan’s parent company Edrington, tells Fast Company. “We’re talking to a wider generation, not just the generation of James Marsden.”
Other Gen Z and younger millennial-aged Scotch advertising stars include Formula 1 driver Charles Leclerc, who serves as global brand ambassador for Chivas Regal under a multi-year partnership, and Puerto Rico singer Rauw Alejandro, who linked up with Buchanan’s for a FIFA World Cup-inspired campaign that debuted in April. Pop star Sabrina Carpenter is crooning for Johnnie Walker, while actor Thomas Doherty and Jamaican model Miqueal-Symone Williams starred in The Glenlivet’s most recent advertising push.
“I welcome that the category and competitors are doing the same thing,” says Colombo. “What we want to do is recruit more people into the category.”
“It’s about time,” Luke Tegner, head of consulting at alcohol data provider IWSR, tells Fast Company about the new star power that’s been featured in recent Scotch campaigns. “Celebrity and influencers have a major impact in our industry and have been fantastically powerful, in particular, for gin, tequila, and RTDs [ready to drink].”
The Scotch industry suffered under a tariff-induced hangover after the implementation of a 10% import tax on whisky that went into effect in April 2025. Higher prices on the shelf led volume in the U.S. to tumble 9.2% in 2025 from the prior-year period, according to the trade organization the Scotch Whisky Association. The industry did breathe a sigh of relief in April 2026, when President Donald Trump announced on Truth Social that he would remove the tariffs on Scotch after a state visit from King Charles and Queen Camilla.
Tegner takes an even longer view on Scotch’s woes, saying IWSR’s data shows that the whisky’s exports dropped from 13 million cases in 1990 to just 6.7 million in 2025. While single malt Scotch and newer flavors, like Buchanan’s Pineapple, have resonated with some drinkers, overall Americans are far more likely to gravitate to bourbon and Irish whiskeys.
“The long-term trend for Scotch is one of post maturity and decline,” Tegner tells Fast Company. “That’s why we’re seeing a lot of brands trying very hard to get new consumers as they are trying to get share within the Scotch category, and also to try to reverse that long-term drop off.”
Last fall, liquor giant Diageo revived its famous Johnnie Walker “Keep Walking” campaign, but evolved the campaign language away from a focus on linear, career-driven milestones that may have resonated with older millennials, and instead favored the Gen Z-friendly terrain of embracing vulnerability and even failure. “We saw the opportunity, with the Gen Z consumer in mind, to really refresh a 25-year, long-running line,” Jesse Damashek, SVP of marketing for Diageo’s North America whiskey portfolio, tells Fast Company.
Johnnie Walker says the brand’s U.S. Scotch market share grew from 24% to 26% from when the campaign debuted in November through April 2026, citing data from NielsenIQ and the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association.
Damashek says the brand’s other efforts to evolve include new innovation, including the new Johnnie Walker Black Cask blended Scotch that debuted in February, which features vanilla, caramel, and spice that’s more aligned with the American palette. Johnnie Walker is also embracing newer cocktails like the Go Go Highball, which was concocted in collaboration with Carpenter and mixes whisky with ginger ale, sour cherry juice and garnished with black cherries.
“We’re looking to just build more versatility into the broader Johnnie Walker portfolio,” says Damashek. Working with Carpenter, he adds, “provides a really nice reframe of how consumers can see Scotch showing up in different occasions and cocktails. She’s bringing in a much more diverse consumer in terms of her broad-based appeal.”
In June, Laphroaig is also leaning into the inter-generational theme, running a paid influencer campaign on Instagram that features real fathers and sons.
“We’ve heard countless stories from whisky drinkers that they were introduced to Laphroaig by their father or grandfather,” Steve Belfiglio, senior director for prestige brands at Laphroaig owner Suntory Global Spirits, tells Fast Company. He adds the campaign is meant to remind younger, legal drinking age consumers that Scotch “isn’t just for dad, but it’s for you too.”
Marsden, meanwhile, shares that when he was younger and on the hunt for a buzz, “you’re drinking crappy wine or beer.” But his taste buds have become more sophisticated and he prefers to drink Macallan either neat, which means completely alone in a glass at room temperature, or with a small ice cube.
The advice he shares with Jack and his Gen Z peers is simple: “When you have a glass of this kind of whisky, it’s something to savor.”