Wide Eye is caffeinated schnapps.
In retrospect we wonder how we ever came to work on this. It was called “the most demented product introduction of the year,” by the Splendid Table on NPR. It was protested by its biggest competitor that, ironically, marketed a similar schnapps in a bottle shaped like a machine gun.
Controversies aside, we found this stuff sufficiently outrageous enough to create a culture of supermodels, hidden meanings and a purposely enigmatic spot that enticed oversexed young males to serve shots “as cold as your soul.”
And it worked.
It worked so well that Wide Eye soon shot (no pun intended) to the #3 cold shot behind Jaegermeister and Cuervo 1800 across 7 initial test markets.
That opened more than a few eyes.
Soon competitors began piling into the space making one outrageous claim after the other until, well, the entire market for caffeinated liquor was shut down.
It’s not like bars won’t serve you 100 proof shots with energy boosters to this day, is it?
A few screens below from the bottle, logo and packaging by Ad.

