Making whisky Scotch: advertising a national drink and a global spirit, 1890 – 1970

St. Hilaire, Macon Linton (2026) Making whisky Scotch: advertising a national drink and a global spirit, 1890 – 1970. PhD thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

The Scotch whisky industry of the 21st century has inherited a lineage and global reverence for its spirit. This thesis examines how Scotch whisky transformed from a locally produced spirit into a mass-marketed and globally exported luxury commodity. The success story of Scotch whisky has been cultivated by writers in the industry and marketers, capitalising on the tradition of historic distilling practice, strong links to the geography and ingredients from the landscape of Scotland, and entrepreneurial acumen that developed enduring brands. The prevailing narrative has served to report how distilling capacity grew, and those businessmen cultivated a market for their produce abroad through astute salesmanship and the quality of the spirit. While the demand for Scotch whisky can be gleaned from export and global market figures, less is known about the strategies employed in creating Scotch whisky as a distinct global spirit and their market positioning strategies. This thesis looks at promotional activity by Scotch whisky firms through an analysis of their different marketing outputs in the form of advertisements and positioning to establish how their whisky became Scotch whisky and communicate with consumers why they should be Scotch whisky drinkers.

The literature on the marketing of Scotch whisky has primarily focused on the skill of entrepreneurial blenders and the quality and prestige of the product, downplaying the role of advertisements as an expensive and sometimes extravagant activity. Examining pictorial advertisements makes it possible to explore a reproducible account of what different Scotch whisky firms have emphasised about their brands over time. This thesis underscores the significance of this activity, with globalisation a key driver in changes to the visual and textual signs used by the industry. First, it illustrates how firms communicated that their whisky is Scotch whisky, and secondly, how Scotch whisky firms developed equity for their brands. Doing this builds a more nuanced picture of not just the what and why but also the how and where of this period of significant global growth for the industry.

This thesis is novel in its creation and use of a ‘digital archive’, built to counter the limitations of both the existence of and access to extant Scotch whisky business records and created from periodicals such as The Illustrated London News, The Economist, The Times, and Life Magazine. This has allowed for a holistic examination of the breadth of textual and visual advertisements across publications, representing all the brands promoted in the periodicals examined. The digitisation of these adverts allows for the collation and analysis of pictorial depictions of Scotch whisky, which in turn reveal company-driven communication about the industry, themselves, and their products, as well as public discourse on the meaning of symbols used to represent Scotch whisky.

• Item Type: Thesis (PhD)
• Qualification Level: Doctoral
• Additional Information: Supported by funding from the William Lind Foundation for Scottish Business History.
• Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General); H Social Sciences > HC Economic History and Conditions
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Social and Political Sciences > Political & International Studies
• Supervisor's Name: MacKenzie, Professor Niall and Miller, Dr. Christopher
• Date of Award: 2026
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2026-85763
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 20 May 2026 15:09
• Last Modified: 20 May 2026 15:09
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85763
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85763