IRN-BRU's 'Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar' by The Leith Agency is a 2025 mockumentary film campaign promoting limited-edition XTRA flavours in the United
IRN-BRU Goes Out on Its Own Terms With Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar
IRN-BRU's 'Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar' is a 2025 film campaign created by The Leith Agency to promote two limited-edition IRN-BRU XTRA flavours in the United Kingdom, using a mockumentary format to frame the flavours' mythical Scottish origins as deadpan documentary fact.
Published in April 2025, the campaign comprises two short films directed by Seb Cardinal and produced by Curate Films. Each film treats its subject — the harvesting of tears from unicorns and the extraction of nectar from the Loch Ness Monster — with the studied solemnity of a nature documentary, before the absurdity collapses into unmistakable IRN-BRU irreverence. The two flavours, Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar, are positioned as limited-edition variants of IRN-BRU XTRA, extending the brand's long-running appetite for mythologising its own Scottishness.
The campaign carries particular weight beyond its creative ambitions. As reported by The Drum and confirmed by leith.co.uk, 'Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar' is the final campaign produced by The Leith Agency for IRN-BRU after a relationship spanning approximately 31 years, from 1994 to 2025. A creative review conducted in September 2024 resulted in London-based agency Lucky Generals being appointed to the account, with the change announced in January 2025 according to The Drum. The April 2025 launch of these films therefore functions simultaneously as a product promotion and as a closing statement on one of the most durable creative partnerships in United Kingdom advertising. The campaign contains two media assets and sits within the Drinks (Non Alcoholic) and Confectionery and Snacks categories on Clapboard. It earned a Clapboard Score of 74 out of 100.
IRN-BRU occupies a singular position in the United Kingdom soft drinks market. The brand, owned by A.G. Barr plc, has historically leaned into its Scottish identity not as a regional limitation but as a cultural asset, differentiating itself from global competitors such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo, whose marketing in the United Kingdom tends toward universal emotional registers rather than hyper-specific cultural provocation.
The strategic rationale for 'Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar' operates on two levels simultaneously. At the product level, limited-edition flavour drops are a well-established mechanism for driving impulse purchase and short-term velocity at convenience and grocery retail — a channel in which IRN-BRU holds strong visibility, as noted by betterretailing.com in its coverage of the brand's distribution footprint across the United Kingdom. At the brand level, the campaign sustains the mythology of IRN-BRU as something categorically other: not merely a soft drink but an artefact of Scottish national character, irreducible to category convention.
The choice of the mockumentary format deepens this positioning. By borrowing the grammar of factual filmmaking — handheld camera, talking-head interviews, field-recording aesthetics — the films position the fantastical as plausible within the brand's own internal logic. This approach is consistent with a long lineage of IRN-BRU work from The Leith Agency that treats the brand's outlandish claims with complete sincerity, then punctures that sincerity at precisely the right moment. According to marketintelo.com, the global sweet snacks segment, within which impulse carbonated soft drink purchases compete for occasion-based spend, is a growing market characterised by intensifying competition for distinctiveness at shelf and online — a dynamic that makes cultural specificity a defensible strategic asset rather than a constraint in the United Kingdom.
Director Seb Cardinal leads the creative execution of 'Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar.' Cardinal brings continuity to the assignment: per Clapboard's editorial records, he previously directed IRN-BRU's 'WeCan' campaign for The Leith Agency, making his return for this final collaboration a deliberate act of creative closure.
The production is handled by Curate Films, whose Managing Director Dan Dickenson spoke publicly about the work upon its April 2025 release. In statements attributed to Dickenson by Clapboard, he described the campaign in direct terms: 'This is a campaign only Irn-Bru could pull off.' On Cardinal's direction specifically, Dickenson said: 'Seb's direction hits the sweet spot between ridiculous and inspired — just like the brand itself.' And on the significance of the moment, Dickenson added: 'It's the perfect swansong to an iconic creative partnership.' Taken together, these statements from the production side position the films not as routine commercial work but as a considered valediction.
The mockumentary form is executed with deliberate craft. Each of the two films constructs a plausible documentary world — complete with the visual codes of natural history filmmaking — before deploying IRN-BRU's characteristic tonal pivot. One film addresses the harvesting of nectar from the Loch Ness Monster; the other the collection of tears from unicorns, Scotland's national animal. As described by DesignRush, the overall campaign is surreal, irreverent, and Scottish in character, consistent with the brand's established creative voice across three decades of Leith-led work. The format rewards viewers already inside the brand's cultural logic while remaining accessible enough to function as an introduction for those who are not. Agency credit belongs to The Leith Agency, which held the IRN-BRU account from 1994 until this campaign's release in April 2025, according to leith.co.uk.
No verified performance data for the 'Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar' campaign is publicly available. No sales lift, market-share movement, or brand-tracking results attributable to the April 2025 films have been published by A.G. Barr plc or The Leith Agency at the time of this analysis.
Context from adjacent IRN-BRU activity provides a structural reference point. According to lemonadecollective.com, a prior body of 'Legendary Flavours' work for the brand generated a reported eight million views, three hundred and forty-one thousand engagements, and thirty-six thousand shares, though no methodology, reporting period, or attribution breakdown was provided alongside those figures, and they should be treated accordingly. A.G. Barr plc is also reported to have committed a budget of approximately two million pounds to outdoor and social campaign activity for the brand, according to scottishgrocer.co.uk, indicating a meaningful organisational commitment to sustained above-the-line investment in the United Kingdom market.
Structurally, 'Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar' carries several properties associated with durable creative effectiveness. The mockumentary format creates inherent shareability by rewarding attentive viewing and punishing passive consumption. The limited-edition mechanic generates natural urgency. The farewell dimension — widely reported by The Drum and DesignRush as the conclusion of a 31-year agency partnership — provides earned media interest that extends the campaign's reach beyond paid distribution. The Clapboard Score of 74 out of 100 reflects these structural strengths while acknowledging the absence of independently verified impact data.
IRN-BRU's 'Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar' is a two-film mockumentary campaign created by The Leith Agency in April 2025. It promotes two limited-edition IRN-BRU XTRA flavours in the United Kingdom, using the visual grammar of nature documentary filmmaking to present their fantastical Scottish origins as deadpan fact.
Seb Cardinal directed both films for the campaign. Cardinal previously directed IRN-BRU's 'WeCan' campaign for The Leith Agency. Production was handled by Curate Films, whose Managing Director Dan Dickenson described Cardinal's direction as hitting 'the sweet spot between ridiculous and inspired — just like the brand itself.'
The campaign marks the end of The Leith Agency's relationship with IRN-BRU. As reported by The Drum and leith.co.uk, the agency held the account from 1994 to 2025 — approximately 31 years — before Lucky Generals was appointed following a creative review concluded in early 2025, making this campaign a formal creative farewell.
Lucky Generals replaced The Leith Agency on the IRN-BRU account. The London-based agency was appointed following a creative review held in September 2024, with the account change publicly announced in January 2025, according to The Drum. 'Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar' was released in April 2025 as Leith's final work.
No verified awards for the campaign have been confirmed across Cannes Lions, D&AD, the One Show, Effies, Clios, or Webby programs at the time of this analysis. The campaign launched in April 2025, and the major international awards cycles for that period had not concluded when this case study was published.
The Clapboard Score for 'Unicorn Tears and Nessie Nectar' is 74 out of 100. The score reflects the campaign's strong structural properties — including its mockumentary format, limited-edition mechanic, and cultural specificity — while accounting for the absence of independently verified performance or effectiveness data from the United Kingdom market.
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