Splitting the brand

THE scene: Saturday night in a flickering party tent beneath the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. In front of it are 80 tonnes of snow, heaped into a snowboard ramp on which Europe's coolest swerve and flip. This is “Urban High”, an event where 20,000 clubbers dance to music provided by the Chemical Brothers. And what is the chemical that helps them climb higher? Er Scotch on the rocks. Urban High is sponsored by Ballantine's, the leading brand of Allied Domecq, the world's second-largest producer of Scotch whisky.