When the conversation of “best TV show ever made” arises, AMC’s “Breaking Bad” almost always gets mentioned as a contender. And the proof is in the numbers. The show had the third- most-watched season finale in cable history, and viewership snowballed exponentially between its 2008 debut and end in 2013.
The “Breaking Bad” universe is full of violence, crime, and deception, but given that millions of people have watched the series in its entirety, one would think that some brands would relish the opportunity to get their products in front of that many eyeballs. But when it came time to feature a tequila in one unforgettable episode, every brand passed up on the offer. To understand why, we need to look back to a scene in the 10th episode of Season 4.
After traveling to Mexico to teach cartel members how to cook nearly 100 percent pure meth, Jesse Pinkman, Mike Ehrmantraut, and Gus Fring visit cartel leader Don Eladio Vuente’s lavish home — the same place where Don Eladio’s associate killed Fring’s business partner Max decades prior. In light of the successful cooking class and the pre-existing bad blood between Fring and Don Eladio, the vibe of the get-together swings between friendly and hostile with every interaction. But things start to take a turn for the better when Fring presents a gift to Don Eladio.
“It’s a token of respect in honor of our renewed friendship,” Fring says.
Upon opening the box, Don Eladio can’t believe his eyes. “No, impossible! Zafiro Añejo,” he exclaims (in Spanish). “Even the bottle is a work of art. It’s perfection.” He stands there, marveling at the rounded, blue-tinted bottle and its elaborate copper-plated cork stopper, before calling his butlers over to pour up shots for his visitors and the many cartel members in attendance. “Careful, that’s beautiful stuff,” he says to the servers. “If you spill a drop, I’ll cut off your hand.”
Everyone shouts a hearty “Salud!” and takes a shot of the coveted tequila — except for Pinkman and Ehrmantraut. Soon after, Fring retreats to the bathroom and forces himself to vomit, showing the viewer that the bottle of Zafiro Añejo probably isn’t 100 percent agave. When Fring emerges, all of the cartel members are either dying or already dead. The tequila was poisoned and Fring secured his revenge.
Although there are thousands of tequila brands out there in the real world, Zafiro isn’t one of them. It’s completely fictional, a product confined to the “Breaking Bad” universe, dreamed up and designed by the show’s producers.
According to The Spirits Business, producer Vince Gilligan tried to get product placement for the episode, but every brand declined on the grounds that they didn’t want their tequila associated with a massacre.
It’s an understandable response. After all, there’s a fictional airline, Oceanic Airlines, that has appeared in several movies and TV shows when the script calls for a hijacking, plane crash, or some other airborne fiasco. Delta and JetBlue certainly wouldn’t want their logo featured in such a scenario. The “Breaking Bad” tequila situation is no different.
At the same time, although no brand wants to be even fictionally responsible for a death, the depicted tequila itself wasn’t poisonous, and the dialogue in the scene promotes Zafiro Añejo as both a unicorn bottle and some of the best tequila money can buy. A product placement in the scene certainly would’ve been a risk, but given the show’s massive following, it might have paid off in the long run.
Zafiro Añejo then appeared in a number of scenes in “Breaking Bad’s” offshoot series “Better Call Saul” where it was again framed as a luxury product. Millions of eyeballs have seen the fictional brand on screen, and now there’s even recreations of Zafiro’s cork stopper available for sale online. All the while, those eyes could have been on a real tequila, for better or worse.
In 2022, a Reddit thread on The Spirits Business’s article generated a lot of comments speculating the success of a genuine product placement in the legendary scene. “Perfect example of corporate idiocy, any brand’s sales would skyrocket after that scene,” one user wrote. “Any viewer who doesn’t know many brands would probably get the one they saw on BrBa and BCS because ‘that’s the good stuff,’” commented another.
They might be right. But of course, hindsight is 20/20, and you can’t blame the real tequila brands for playing it safe. While we can only imagine what Zafiro Añejo would actually taste like, the show’s fans can pick up a bottle of Dos Hombres mezcal — a real agave spirits brand co-founded by “Breaking Bad” stars Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul. It may not be Zafiro, but at least Gus Fring isn’t working the bottling line.
*Image retrieved from Gorodenkoff – stock.adobe.com
