Guillermo Del Toro Made A Tequila Ad Because Of Course He Did

Hellboy and Frankenstein director Guillermo Del Toro shot a fun little promo spot for Patrón.

I don’t think you’d lose money betting that Mexican maestro of the macabre Guillermo Del Toro knows his way around tequila. He strikes me as a man of somewhat epicurean tastes, both in gothic literature and the reason God made agave. Hence, the director of Pan’s Labyrinth, Nightmare Alley, and icthyosexual erotic classic The Shape Of Water has directed his first ever advertisement, a 30 second spot for Patrón Tequila dubbed “The Perfect Pour”.

“Did we really need one of the most iconic directors to film a simple pour?” the voiceover intones as we see what looks, to the untrained eye, a pretty bog-standard alcohol ad. But then, lo and behold, there’s GDT himself directing the thing – muy meta – and his film crew are animated skeletons rendered in a traditional Mexican Day of the Dead style. It’s very cute.

But don’t go thinking Guillermo just cashed a check, although there’s nothing wrong with that; ads have certainly kept Spike Lee in Nicks merch over the years, to name one example. But GDT’s been a fan of Patrón for ages, it seems, with both director and brand hailing from Jalisco. He first teamed up with them back in 2017 for this suitably gothic promo:

He also designed the bottles for that limited edition drop seen in the video, which I wish I’d gotten wind of at the time.

Don’t expect more commercial work from the Blade II director, though. Speaking to Variety, Del Toro said he didn’t see further collaborations in his future.

“No, other than Patrón, honestly, I don’t foresee doing any more commercials. I’m not interested. I was interested in this because we have a similar philosophy from the time we designed the bottle to now, I find our principles very sympatico. But for me, it’s about Jalisco, it’s about my identity, it’s about something that represents my roots. I cannot sell sodas or yogurt.”