Hennessy’s Wild Rabbit has been “running” strong now for five years now. The integrated campaign from ad agency Droga5 celebrates artists and the strive for greatness. After a star-studded 2012 rollout with Erykah Badu, Martin Scorsese and Manny Pacquiao, the brand found the perfect partner in legendary lyricist Nas, who’d been rapping about the world’s best-selling Cognac since his iconic debut Illmatic in ‘94 , which Hennessy also co-funded a recent documentary on.
Nas—as well as Bar Business Magazine—were in attendance at Miami’s Market Gallery on December 1 for the Project Wild Rabbit event. Hennessy has also
put its money where its Wild mouth is, in the form of scholarships, prizes and mentorships to young artists at NYC’s Pratt Institute. This year’s winners—Satire Parvin’s interactive Roots and Arian Beauregard’s mixed-media 2001 pieces took top honors, awarded by famed visual artist and fellow Pratt grad, Kadir Nelson, who premiered his own piece, The G.O.A.T.: Muhammad Ali. “Hennessy has a long tradition of celebrating and collaborating with artists who are embodiments of excellence,” Nelson told us. “Artists can never stop and never settle throughout their process and careers.”
The event also featured personalized Hennessy cocktails for you—and your inner Rabbit—created by US Brand Ambassador Jordan Bushell, which you were led to after answering some questions through an iPad app. “Cognac is probably the last bastion of unknown-yet-popular spirits,” said Bushell. “Cognac—and brandy in general—has a deep, rich history, but is still relatively unfamiliar to many, so I get to educate almost as if it were a new category.” No doubt about it, booze education is definitely BBM’s Wild Rabbit.
