Bruce Lee is rumored to have abstained from alcohol (he preferred water), but that hasn’t deterred advertisers from resurrecting the late action star, CGI-style, in a Chinese ad for Johnnie Walker Blue Label. From a dramatically darkened apartment in Hong Kong, his digital likeness expounds on the power of water—one of his trademark philosophies. “Be water, my friend. Because someday you’ll be more than a success. You’ll be a game changer,” says CGI Lee, who took over nine months to create. “Every shot of his head and every detail in there is completely cgi,” explains director Joseph Kahn. “We got Shannon Lee, Bruce Lee’s daughter, to come aboard and we really picked her brain to make sure that everything was accurate from look to soul. We wanted to be as respectful to the man and legend as we could.” The ad ends with Lee urging viewers to “Keep walking”—an allusion to one of his famous adages “Walk on”—modified to promote the Scotch brand. Since the beloved martial artist’s death in 1973, his likeness has been used to sell everything from Lipton iced tea to Nokia cell phones to Mars bars. Check out his latest posthumous work below:
Johnnie Walker “Game Changer” from Joseph Kahn on Vimeo.