Sir Sean swaps his martini for Scotch

• Sir Sean Connery does $1 million deal to promote Dewar's whisky

• His first campaign for Scottish whisky - but won't be shown in UK

• Advert uses images of a young Connery in the Hitchcock film Marnie and current footage of the 73-year-old

Key quote "It took a lot of chasing and a lot of hard negotiations. We are delighted it is the first Scotch whisky he has ever promoted." - Neil Boyd of Dewar's

Story in full HIS alter ego’s signature aperitif may have been a vodka martini - shaken not stirred - but in real, life it appears the James Bond actor Sir Sean Connery prefers a dram of whisky.

After years of being wooed by various distillers, Scotland’s most famous actor has agreed to front a major campaign for Dewar’s, the world’s fourth-largest whisky brand.

It is the first time Sir Sean has agreed to promote his country’s most illustrious export, with the deal reported to have cost the brand more than $1 million.

The promotion for Dewar's 12-year-old will not run in the UK, where the brand is small, but will instead focus on the emerging markets of Lebanon, Greece, Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Thailand, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic.

Television and cinema commercials with subtitles will run alongside poster advertising, with the strapline: "Some age, others mature". The campaign will run until March 2006.

Neil Boyd, the global brand director of the Aberfeldy-based company, said the company was thrilled to be associated with Sir Sean.

He said it had taken 18 months of negotiations to make the promotion happen.

"Celebrity endorsements are very fashionable just now. The public seem very interested in their lifestyles and what they do. And it’s an effective promotion for a brand," he added.

"It took a lot of chasing and a lot of hard negotiations. We are delighted it is the first Scotch whisky he has ever promoted.

"As celebrities go, he is one of the biggest names."

Sir Sean has never previously promoted a Scotch whisky, but, in 1991, he courted controversy by appearing in an advertisement for the Japanese whisky, Suntory.

Amid accusations that he was jeopardising Scottish jobs, a Labour MP even drafted an early-day motion in the Commons, accusing the actor of hypocrisy.

The new advertisement, like its Japanese equivalent, which is parodied in the current Bill Murray film Lost in Translation, cannot be shown in the UK for contractual reasons.

The adverts splice images of a young Connery appearing in the 1964 Hitchcock film Marnie with current footage of the 73-year-old actor, who berates his former self for not drinking Dewar’s 12-year-old.

At the same time, there is a knock at the door and the camera pans to a dark-haired girl in a long, split dress, saying: "Sean, Sean, are you in there?" Old Sean looks at young Sean and says: "Shall you get it or I?"

Old Sean motions towards the door and says to the camera: "Some age, others mature. Dewar’s 12 Scotch Whisky."

Alan Gray, a whisky analyst with Sutherlands, said the choice of Sir Sean to promote the brand in emerging markets was a good one. "He is such a well-known figure worldwide - James Bond is shown everywhere - so this makes sense," he said.

Dewar’s has used celebrities before: the actor Andy Garcia fronted a previous campaign for its 12-year-old whisky, while in Spain, the label was promoted in a poster campaign by the actors Jamie Lee Curtis, Liam Neeson and Jeremy Irons.

Dewar’s was formerly a major brand in the UK, but was de-listed in 1980 by its former owner, Diageo, which chose to concentrate on Bell’s. The brand was bought for $1.4 billion by Bacardi in 1998 and has re-established itself in the market.

But it is abroad that Dewar’s is a major success - it is ranked No1 in the United States, ahead of the likes of Johnnie Walker. About 98 per cent of its business is export, and it sells 48 million bottles annually.

Campbell Evans, a spokesman for the Scotch Whisky Association, described the link between whisky and Sir Sean as "not before time".