From Square Bottles to the Striding Man: How Johnnie Walker Became a Global Icon – Part 1

As the best-selling scotch whisky brand in the world, Johnnie Walker has attained global recognition in no small part due to key advertising decisions, which ensure the brand remains an integral and innovative contributor to Scotland’s whisky heritage and industry.

Celebrating the launch of The Whiskey Wash’s Johnnie Walker Advert Archive, a collection curating nearly 100 print advertisements from 1911 to 1963 – a series of three articles explores the key advertising decisions from the Johnnie Walker brand’s 19th-century origins to 21st-century global marketing. This first article examines the brand’s marketing foundations including the distinctive bottle shape and label colors.

The Origins Of The Brand

The Johnnie Walker story began when the brand’s namesake, John Walker, established a grocery and spirit merchants shop in Kilmarnock, Scotland in 1820. Despite this, it was John’s son, Alexander Walker, who upon inheriting the business in 1857, transformed the company into a dedicated whisky blender, and laid the foundations for the development and long-term success of the Johnnie Walker brand. 

Walker was aided by the passage of The Spirits Act 1860, which legalized the blending of malt and grain whisky, commencing a new era of blended scotch whisky. In 1865, Alexander Walker created the future Johnnie Walker Black Label, originally named ‘Old Highland Whisky’, registering the blend’s copyright in 1867.

Alexander Walker also implemented many of the iconic features of the future Johnnie Walker brand, introducing the distinctive square bottle for bottling John Walker & Sons company blends from 1860, initially to enable more bottles packed in a small space for export and to reduce breakages.  

The brand’s distinctive slanted label was trademarked by Alexander Walker in 1877 – applied at an angle of 24 degrees it was designed to attract attention from consumers, and remains a defining characteristic of Johnnie Walker whisky.

From Old Highland To Johnnie Walker 

In 1906, Alexander Walker’s sons, Alexander II, and George P. Walker expanded the Old Highland blended whisky range to three expressions in ascending age order; Old Highland, Special Old Highland, and Extra Special Old Highland. 

Featuring white, red, and black labels respectively, the Old Highland range quickly became known amongst consumers by the distinctive label colors. This led the Old Highland range to be was renamed under a new trademarked brand name, Johnnie Walker, from 1909. The existing Old Highland expressions were renamed as Red Label, Black Label, and the short-lived White Label.

Alongside the creation of the brand, George P. Walker and company managing director James Stevenson sought to overhaul the Old Highland range’s marketing – with Stevenson devising the classic marketing strapline ‘Born 1820 – Still Going Strong’. 

The company management also aimed to promote the new Johnnie Walker through printed advertisements, approaching famous cartoonist and illustrator Tom Browne to design a new mascot in 1908 – the result was the famous ‘Striding Man’.