Basket

Jane Walker: Is Johnnie Walker about to introduce a female counterpart?

Jane Walker
Annie Hayes
Annie Hayes
Share:
Scotch Whisky

As the conversation around tackling gender inequality and championing female empowerment develops, could Diageo be planning to launch a female equivalent of the Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky brand in the form of Jane Walker?

Apparently so, if a report from highly reputable (ahem) celebrity gossip site TMZ is correct. Diageo “filed paperwork in early January to trademark the name Jane Walker for all alcoholic beverages except beer”, the article states, citing “new docs” as a source.

Entertainment news source aside, it seems that it’s not the first time the company has toyed with the concept. Around the time of the 2016 presidential election, advertising trade publication Adweek wrote that plans for a Jane Walker ad campaign were underway – but the campaign was scrapped after the result was announced.

Jane WalkerJohnnie Walker owner Diageo has a progressive approach to gender equality

The plot thickens. Diageo declined to comment on the rumours, so we’ll just have to wait and see.

One thing is certain, however – the company is known for advocating for female representation in the workplace. In fact, these whispers come a little more than a month after Diageo released its latest gender pay gap report, which revealed that the business has one of the highest ranked boardrooms in terms of gender parity among FTSE 100 companies.

What’s your take – is Jane Walker a positive and welcome addition to the fight for inclusivity? Or will the Striding (wo)Man simply serve to gender whisky further?

Tags:

Johnnie Walker

5 Comments

Nicholle Olores
Nicholle OloresJanuary 19, 2018
Interesting article! Drinking Whiskey is something we couldn’t resist. Women are maybe soft and weak but probably we love drinking it! I hope we will get latest article regarding this.
Mauritz
MauritzJanuary 18, 2018
A new PINK LABEL ?
Paul SINGH
Paul SINGHJanuary 17, 2018
INTRESTING
Matthew E Miars
Matthew E MiarsJanuary 16, 2018
I don’t see how it could be a bad thing. For the man who’s walked around the world to have a female partnership is just good marketing. It should never be about gender equality. That’s an unfortunate understatement to humans. Someone’s ethnic background or gender shouldn’t stipulate or limit their contribution towards anything. We are all humans we should start recognizing those similarities and differences to better ourselves and the society we live in. It may be another way to get one’s hands on an exclusive bottling as well. If that’s the case put me down for one I’m still trying to find a bottle of their espresso blend lol.
Philip Storry
Philip StorryJanuary 16, 2018
I don’t think gendering whisky helps it. And I fear what might go wrong with a Jane Walker brand! Unless the whisky’s a new blend, it’s basically the start of pinkwashing in whisky. Which nobody should welcome. If the blend’s different, which direction do they choose? You’d hope it’d be something smokier or richer, so that it doesn’t play into the negative stereotypes of women being weak and soft. But no matter what, any change is a minefield of potential negative messages. I can accept that the name should be trademarked as a defensive thing. I could accept special edition labels for events like International Women’s Day, with a limited time to order labels in the run up to it. That makes sense – and if done with the right tone and a deft touch, could even be quite positive. “Jane Walker. Different name, same depth of character” or similar. But otherwise I’d rather that whisky be about everyone enjoying the same whisky, regardless of their gender or other attributes. Whisky has shown a remarkable ability to bring strangers together in good spirits (pardon the pun!) over the years, so let’s focus on that rather than risk pinkwashing and dividing the market into separate-but-equal segments.

Leave a Comment