THE MAKING OF MAGNUM
In 1998, when I was 20 years old, my mother's boyfriend, CEO of Lascelles in Jamaica, asked me to help him conceptualize a new product his company was launching. It was a "front end lifter" he said and the only competitor on the market was Red Label Wine. My mind immediately started buzzing. The stall man across the road from my high school was a Rasta man who sold a variety of aphrodisiacal concoctions. Most of them were dairy based but one in particular was like a wine. It was called Magnum and I suggested that name would be perfect. The whole meeting lasted minutes.
I had the idea to take over from Guiness as the official drink of the vibrant Dancehall scene and to use bright red and yellows in the design so as to stand out from every other product on the market, not just Red Label Wine. along with my team, Cross Camp Entertainment, I also wrote, recorded, produced and directed the stamping of a full length dancehall record for Magnum.
On the wall beside us that first night we spoke of the brand, was a painting I had done for Mr. Thomas for Christmas the year before. It was a Haring-esque blue man and red woman wrapped in a sensual embrace. This image was recreated to use alongside the text visual - MAGNUM - that I had designed and the brand was completed within 6 months of that meeting in my living room.
In July 1999, Magnum Tonic Wine burst on the scene with an explosive impact after the launch at a top nightclub where I performed the theme song.
Lascelles deMercado, the company that first produced Magnum Tonic Wine and parent company of J. Wray & Nephew Ltd. was acquired by Italy's Gruppo Campari in 2012 and today, MAGNUM, as the unofficial drink of Jamaican Popular Culture, is second in that company's exports only to their White Overproof rum.