And Now A Word From Our Sponsors: PATRÓN, Perrier-Jouët, & Royal Salute

Most of my sponsored content writing gigs fall between Labor Day and early December, when booze bands are looking to the holidays to kickstart sales, and the publications in which they advertise look to to freelance writers like me to help them. And I’m happy to do it. As my mother-in-law says when using her discount coupons at Kohl’s, “I ain’t proud.” Over the last couple of years, though, writing spon-con (also known as advertorials) has become a year-round thing, even if it’s more of a trickle than a flood during the early part of the year.

Anyway, here are two advertorials of mine that were recently published in Robb Report and VinePair. The Robb Report piece is a wild one, covering an elaborately adorned bottle of rare champagne from Maison Perrier-Jouët; a $50,000 bottle of Royal Salute blended Scotch whisky (that’s right, $50,000 for a blend!); and… a snow polo event in St. Moritz where select attendees got to sample them. I didn’t get to go to St. Moritz to witness the festivities — hell, I didn’t even know snow polo was a thing until I got the assignment. But I spoke with a Robb Report writer who was there, and who gave me all the details. And you can read all about the bottles, the snow polo, and find out how to apply for membership to parent company Pernod Ricard’s super-exclusive private club besides. Resistance is futile. Link is -> HERE <-.

I’ve written about Patron tequila before for the good folks at VinePair and hopefully I’ll write about it again, because, even though it’s hip to bash it nowadays, it’s still a good tequila, especially the blanco. Unlike many other publications, VinePair puts bylines on its spon-con, so it’s fortunate that I’ve never had to write spon-con for anything I think really sucks. Because even though these articles are clearly marked sponsored content , that may be less obvious to the reader than to the writer. Anyway, the gist of the article is that… what, you think I was going to tell you? You have to read the damn thing! OK, PLEASE read the damn thing. There, I said please. Link is -> HERE <-.