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Kahlúa and Dunkin' Unite Behind Salma Hayek in Kahlunkin' Campaign
Kahlúa launched the "It's Kahlunkin'" campaign in the United Kingdom in October 2025, a film-led creative collaboration with Dunkin' that introduces the Kahlúa Dunkin' Caramel Swirl Cream Liqueur through a telenovela-inspired comedy spot starring Academy Award-nominated actress Salma Hayek, directed by Rodrigo Valdes and created by Wieden+Kennedy London.
The campaign's central conceit is elegantly simple. A group gathers in a living room as a creamy, caramel-hued liquid is poured — one that looks unmistakably like Kahlúa. Salma Hayek then kicks down the door, emphatically declaring the drink is not Kahlúa. Moments later, a moustachioed disguise is pulled away to reveal a character dressed as a Dunkin' coffee cup, and the mystery is resolved: the drink is Kahlunkin'. The portmanteau is not merely a campaign device. It is a product identity, shorthand for what happens when Kahlúa's rum and 100% Arabica coffee from Veracruz, Mexico — the heritage ingredients of the world's number one coffee liqueur, as described by kahlua.com — meet Dunkin's Caramel Swirl flavour and real cream at 16% ABV.
The campaign broke across streaming video, digital, social, and audio placements, as reported by Marketing Dive in its October 2025 coverage. It marks Salma Hayek's return to the Kahlúa spotlight, building on a prior brand relationship while adding a new dimension through the Dunkin' partnership. Published in the United Kingdom, the work represents a transatlantic creative effort: a London-based agency, a Mexican-born Hollywood star, and two American consumer brands converging on a product launched simultaneously into the wider global conversation. The Clapboard Score for the campaign is 71 out of 100.
Kahlúa operates in a competitive premium spirits landscape. According to The Absolut Group, Kahlúa is positioned as the world's leading coffee liqueur, owned by French spirits giant Pernod Ricard. In the United States, Kahlúa recorded sales of 921,000 nine-litre cases in 2024, per Shanken News Daily — a figure that underlines the brand's commercial scale and the strategic importance of sustaining relevance among consumers who are simultaneously drawn to both the spirits aisle and the coffee market.
The Kahlunkin' collaboration targets a consumer who already moves fluidly between these two worlds. Dunkin', owned by Inspire Brands following its 2020 acquisition of Dunkin' Brands as reported by kahlua.com, brings a devoted, flavour-forward fanbase into the Kahlúa orbit. The Caramel Swirl variant specifically addresses growing consumer appetite for flavoured and cream-style liqueurs, a subcategory that positions Kahlúa differently from direct competitors such as Baileys Irish Cream, which dominates the cream liqueur tier, and Tia Maria, which contests Kahlúa in the coffee liqueur segment across the United Kingdom market. By creating a hybrid product with its own coined name, Kahlúa effectively sidesteps direct category comparison — Kahlunkin' is not competing as a coffee liqueur or a cream liqueur in the conventional sense, it is its own thing.
Caroline Begley, VP of Marketing for Kahlúa, and Craig van Niekerk, Global Vice President of Marketing for Kahlúa, are the senior marketing leads behind the campaign, according to kahlua.com and marketingdive.com respectively. The strategic logic is consistent with a broader industry move toward co-branded limited editions that generate cultural conversation beyond the reach of either brand acting alone — particularly in the United Kingdom, where novelty-driven premiumisation continues to animate spirits purchasing decisions.
Wieden+Kennedy London created the campaign. Director Rodrigo Valdes brings a heightened, melodramatic visual register to the spot that is entirely calibrated to the telenovela genre — a format native to Salma Hayek's cultural background and one that gives the comedy its specific texture and timing.
The craft of the film rests on escalating absurdity delivered with complete sincerity. The opening scene — a domestic gathering, an alluring liquid being poured — is staged with the slow-burn drama of a primetime soap opera. The tonal pivot arrives with Salma Hayek's entrance: physical, declarative, and performed with the heightened commitment that telenovela parody demands. The moustache reveal and the Dunkin' cup costume are the kind of visual gags that only land when the surrounding production takes itself completely seriously, and the spot understands this precisely.
Hayek's own words speak to the energy on set. As quoted by kahlua.com, she stated: "It was such a joy to celebrate moments of connection with Kahlúa once again, plus a wink of Dunkin' humor along the way. I think people will feel the energy and playfulness we felt while shooting." That sense of genuine enjoyment is visible in the finished work. The spot is constructed around a single, satisfying comedic reveal, which gives it strong structural recall — an important attribute for a campaign distributed across short-form digital and audio environments where attention is fragmented. The production carries one media asset, as noted by kahlua.com, deployed across streaming video, digital, social, and audio in the United Kingdom and beyond, maximising creative mileage from a tightly focused execution.
No verified third-party performance data for the "It's Kahlunkin'" campaign — such as view counts, engagement rates, or sales uplift figures — is publicly available at the time of writing. What can be assessed is the structural effectiveness of the campaign's creative choices and their alignment with measurable marketing objectives.
The campaign's distribution strategy is broad and deliberate. As reported by Marketing Dive, the October 2025 launch spanned streaming video, digital, social, and audio — a multi-channel footprint that maximises reach across the diverse media habits of spirits consumers in the United Kingdom and the United States. The use of a high-profile celebrity with genuine brand affinity, rather than a transactional endorsement arrangement, reduces the risk of audience scepticism. Salma Hayek's prior relationship with Kahlúa, referenced across kahlua.com and mediapost.com, lends the campaign authenticity that purely paid partnerships rarely generate.
The co-branding architecture also does measurable commercial work. By fusing Kahlúa's coffee liqueur heritage with Dunkin's Caramel Swirl identity into a product that carries its own coined name, the campaign generates shelf differentiation and social shareability simultaneously. The neologism "Kahlunkin'" functions as an organic search and social trigger — a mechanism that extends campaign reach without additional media spend. The Clapboard Score of 71 out of 100 reflects a campaign that executes its comic premise with confidence and deploys its talent effectively, while operating within a creative framework that, by design, prioritises entertainment and brand personality over formal innovation.
"It's Kahlunkin'" is a 2025 Kahlúa and Dunkin' campaign created by Wieden+Kennedy London, starring Salma Hayek. The telenovela-inspired film introduces the Kahlúa Dunkin' Caramel Swirl Cream Liqueur, a hybrid product blending Kahlúa's rum and Arabica coffee with Dunkin's Caramel Swirl flavour and cream, published in the United Kingdom in October 2025.
Rodrigo Valdes directed the "It's Kahlunkin'" campaign. He worked alongside creative agency Wieden+Kennedy London to develop the telenovela-inspired comedic spot, which stars Salma Hayek and was published in the United Kingdom in October 2025 to launch the Kahlúa Dunkin' Caramel Swirl Cream Liqueur.
The Kahlúa Dunkin' Caramel Swirl Cream Liqueur is a co-branded product bottled at 16% ABV. It combines Kahlúa's rum and 100% Arabica coffee from Veracruz, Mexico, with Dunkin's Caramel Swirl flavour and real cream, according to kahlua.com. The product carries the campaign's coined name: Kahlunkin'.
Wieden+Kennedy London created the campaign to introduce the Kahlúa and Dunkin' co-branded product in the United Kingdom. The agency developed the telenovela-inspired concept, directed by Rodrigo Valdes and starring Salma Hayek, deploying the finished work across streaming video, digital, social, and audio channels in October 2025.
The "It's Kahlunkin'" campaign received a Clapboard Score of 71 out of 100. The score reflects confident comic execution and effective use of Salma Hayek's talent within a telenovela-inspired format, while acknowledging that the creative framework prioritises brand personality and entertainment over formal innovation.
Salma Hayek has a prior brand relationship with Kahlúa, making the "It's Kahlunkin'" campaign a return rather than a debut. According to kahlua.com, Hayek described it as a joy to celebrate moments of connection with Kahlúa once again, confirming this is not her first appearance in the brand's advertising.
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