Why We ‘Killed’ Old Jamaica: The Truth Behind the Campaign

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RIP, Old Old Jamaica, the iconic British ginger beer

Creative Bloq interviews Hernán Cerdeiro, CCO Americas at SAMY, the mastermind behind the campaign.

There are a million ways to approach a rebranding campaign. Some brands require a subtle refresh that people only notice months after the fact. But others need to go louder, and I don’t think I’ve seen any make as much noise as Old Jamaica.

The British ginger beer brand didn’t announce its rebrand with a drumroll and fanfare; it ran an eight-month send-off for its previous identity. That included a farewell tour, bucket-list stunts, and a countdown clock claiming to show the number of cans left.

It’s the first time I’m aware of that a brand has staged its own death to remind people how much they like it. The nearest comparison I can think of is when M&M’s briefly announced the retirement of their ‘spokescandies’ following the absurd green M&M scandal. Wasn’t it a risky move? What if nobody cared? I caught up with campaign mastermind Hernán Cerdeiro, CCO Americas at SAMY to ask him how he held his nerve.

We’ve seen a lot of subtle rebrands recently. Why did Old Jamaica need the opposite direction? Because subtle doesn’t slap, and Old Jamaica couldn’t be less subtle – it’s punchy, fizzy, and fiery. It’s a drink bursting with personality, which was hiding in a can that looked completely outdated. We dragged the brand into 2025 with colour, chaos, and attitude. It needs to turn heads. Have a bit of swagger.

This is Carnival in a can; the old one was more “cardigan”. And if you are going to do a rebrand, why wouldn’t you go all in? We weren’t just chasing a rebrand; we were chasing ‘a mic drop moment’. A way to honour the past of the brand, not just pretend it never existed. The idea to “retire” Old Jamaica came from a simple challenge: We needed to do something that, to our knowledge, no one had ever done before. And we wanted to do it with style – if you are going to kill off a brand, you shouldn’t be doing it with a whimper.

We went big – murals, memes, foul-mouthed videos, and a Carnival takeover. We really wanted people to miss Old Jamaica, tapping into the emotion of the fans. The fact that Old Jamaica really brought into the vision we had at SAMY meant we could really go for it. Having the backing of the people who made the big decisions about the strategic direction of the brand was a game-changer.

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Why We ‘Killed’ Old Jamaica: The Truth Behind the Campaign

RIP, Old Old Jamaica, the iconic British ginger beer

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