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Uncle Nearest creates Motown-inspired advert
American whiskey brand Uncle Nearest has created a new TV advert to highlight a Motown song by writer and producer Frank Wilson, called Do I Love You (Indeed I Do).
Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey has a new TV advert, called Do I Love You
Uncle Nearest Premium Whiskey was launched in 2017 to celebrate Nathan ‘Nearest’ Green, a formerly enslaved man who was the first-known African-American master distiller.
The brand is continuing to highlight lesser-known American stories, and its latest commercial sets out to introduce the US to Wilson’s Motown music.
The song Do I Love You (Indeed I do) was written and performed by Wilson, and became the most expensive Motown vinyl ever sold when a record dealer from Leicestershire, UK, bought the record for £25,742 (US$33,640). It is the 10th most expensive vinyl that’s ever been sold, but was never released in the US.
The song now provides the soundtrack to Uncle Nearest’s second commercial, called Do I Love You.
Fawn Weaver, CEO and founder of Uncle Nearest and daughter of Wilson, said: “I remember where I was the moment I learned my father had recorded an album with his own voice. My father did a brilliant job of cementing his own legacy when he was alive.
“Now, I have the honour of combining that with my own mission of cementing the legacy of Nearest Green, a man who didn’t have the chance to do that while he was living.
“I have no doubt my father is in heaven with a smile, and hopefully seated right next to him is another legend, Nearest.”
Only 250 demo copies of the vinyl were created, and it thought only two remain. The rest are believed to have been destroyed when Wilson decided to be a Motown producer rather than a singer. One of the two is thought to be owned by Berry Gordy, founder of Motown Records, while the second is at a Northern soul nightclub in Wigan, England.
The Do I Love You advert was broadcast in all 50 US states on 4 August, starting with Detroit in Michigan, the original home of Motown Records.
David Poag, director of the advert, said: “The opportunity to share the story of yet another legacy was too good to pass up. And the song itself is just so good. It makes you want to jump and dance, it makes you happy. That’s an emotion we are proud to be broadcasting right now.”
Click the video below to watch the TV advert, Do I Love You.