In 1968, Canadian Club hid whisky behind Venezuela’s Angel Falls; newlyweds found the case after a jungle trek, one of 25 stashed worldwide

In 1968, newlyweds David and Diana Mattoon had a very different kind of honeymoon. The newlyweds changed their planned trip to Acapulco and travelled to Venezuela to search for a hidden case of Canadian Club whiskey. Their journey took them into the rainforest near Angel Falls, where they found one of the cases placed around the world as part of an unusual advertising campaign.Canadian Club hid its second whiskey case at Angel Falls in 1968The Hide a Case campaign by Canadian Club started in 1967, when it was under the ownership of Hiram Walker. In this marketing strategy, the firm used to hide cases of Canadian Club and then gave hints to the same, which could be found through advertisements in magazines. According to Rochelle Pereira-Alvares’s thesis, Mickeys, Minis and Punts: An Investigation of the Marketing and Advertising Initiatives of Seagram and Hiram Walker, 1950-1969, archived at Library and Archives Canada, the campaign launched in July 1967, with the first case hidden in Tanzania, close to Mount Kilimanjaro. A second case was hidden at Angel Falls in Venezuela in January 1968. A contemporary report published in The Washington Post on 26 August 1979, by Joseph P. Mastrangelo, titled Whiskey in the Wild, describes the early campaign and what was discovered by two honeymooners, David and Diana Mattoon.David and Diana Mattoon changed their honeymoon plans to find the whiskeyThe couple had earlier planned on having their honeymoon in Acapulco, Mexico. Diana believed they were headed to Acapulco until David revealed his real plan while they were still in the air: to travel to Venezuela and search for the Canadian Club case near Angel Falls. The newlyweds travelled through the rainforest in difficult conditions, encountering heavy rain and mosquitoes along the way. David and Diana were also added to the search by a guide who was called Jungle Rudy. Mastrangelo’s 1979 article says Rudy had earlier helped the advertising team hide the whiskey case. David and Diana found the case within days of starting their trek into the rainforest, according to Mastrangelo’s report.Canadian Club hid 25 whiskey cases between 1967 and 1991The search for the Angel Falls case was just one component of a broad promotion that hid cases of Canadian Club in unexpected places worldwide. Between 1967 and 1991, Canadian Club hid 25 whiskey cases in remote locations around the world, according to VinePair’s article “The Long History of Canadian Club’s ‘Hide a Case’ Campaign.” These hidden cases were found at Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, Angel Falls in Venezuela, the Swiss Alps, the Arctic Circle and Death Valley in California. There were also cases found close to the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and on top of a skyscraper in Manhattan.In an announcement by Canadian Club’s parent Company, Beam Global Spirits & Wine, dated May 17, 2010, it is stated that 16 of the 25 cases had been found by them. The company also said that clues published in their print advertisement in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s aided many people in finding the cases. Canadian Club revived it at different times, allowing people another chance at following the clues.Canadian Club revived the treasure hunt in 2010Hide a Case was revived in May 2010 by Canadian Club and participants in Canada and the United States were challenged to enter a contest with an opportunity to join an expedition around the globe to discover one of the hidden cases and receive a $100,000 reward. As mentioned in the company's press release, World-Famous Treasure Hunt Resurrected, the contest included such challenges as online contests, video submissions and treasure hunting. Four Canadians and four Americans were to be chosen to join an expedition led by television personality Kevin Brauch.The chosen participants were to meet at a secret destination in April 2011 and complete several challenges to uncover the mystery of the lost case. As a result, the old promotion regained popularity through online participation alongside the original search for hidden whiskey. The Mattoons’ honeymoon search for whiskey at Angel Falls, in the Venezuelan rainforest, was among the campaign’s most notable episodes.You use AI every day. Now get your AI Quotient. Take the AIQ test.