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The ad, by The Leith Agency, features an animation inspired by Raymond Briggs' The Snowman, accompanied by a reworked version of Welsh warbler Aled Jones' 80s hit Walking in the Air.

It shows the snowman and the red-haired boy from Briggs' story flying over Scottish landmarks, with the youngster refusing to share his Irn-Bru. The snowman has the last laugh as he snatches the can from the boy and drops him from a great height - though he does land safely in some deep snow.

At the press launch of the ad, attended by a raft of Scottish media - the unveiling of an Irn-Bru ad is considered quite an event north of the border - one journalist provoked mumbles of agreement when he said he had expected it to show something along the lines of 'baby Jesus being booted out of his crib'.

The assumption is fair. When it comes to Irn-Bru ads, a pattern has developed: they attract complaints, press coverage of said complaints, an ASA ruling and, in some cases, a ban. A cynic would say the brand courts controversy deliberately, which is vehemently denied by Troy, who prefers to see the brand as a 'likeable maverick'. 'It's not the starting point of our advertising process to be controversial. That's in nobody's interest,' he says.

Neither does Troy accept that the new ad is tame, though he does concede that AG Barr is conscious that Christmas is a feel-good time and wants to leave people with a 'warm feeling'.

Only viewers in Scotland will be able to judge whether the brand has gone soft, as the ad will not air elsewhere. In the past, there has been talk of Irn-Bru cracking England, but Troy seems content for it to be a challenger in the North of England, a 'repertoire' brand in the South, and a leading brand in Scotland.

He believes it is better to focus resources in the South on brands such as Orangina and water brand Strathmore, which AG Barr acquired in May and is to be developed as a grocery brand. A UK relaunch of Tizer, which Troy says will 'build on its past', is also in the pipeline.

Before joining AG Barr, Troy had been at Britvic for 10 years; sources suggest that had there been somewhere in the organisation for him to go, he might have stayed on. As it was, the presence of Andrew Marsden heading marketing as category director, and Richard Collins, who has just vacated the role of director of brand marketing, stymied his career progression. Now he is in charge of a 10-strong team and the size of the firm means he can take a strategic overview of the brands, but still dip in to involve himself in the detail.

Troy still retains ties with his old life. His wife and children live near Watford and he splits his time between there and Manchester, where AG Barr's marketing team is based. He says his family will move when the time is right in terms of his 11-year-old daughter's schooling.

Troy's agency contacts from his time at Britvic say he is down-to-earth and knowledgeable. Hugh Baillie, group business director at Bartle Bogle Hegarty, says he 'is immensely likeable and has no airs or graces'; Johnny Hornby, managing partner of Clemmow Hornby Inge, adds that Troy makes decisions based on facts, not gut instinct, which 'is good for agencies as they know exactly where they stand '.

There is another side to the civil 41-year-old, though. A sports fanatic, Troy remains player-manager for North Bushey FC, near Watford. And just as Sunday-league football is famed for its rough and tumble, so Troy comes over as competitive on a business level; he leaves one in no doubt that Irn-Bru has reversed a sales slide against mineral waters and juices, and is now in single-digit growth.

Perhaps after the brand's softer seasonal campaign, Troy will tap into his Sunday football-hardened self and return the brand to its controversial formula.

CAREER HISTORY

1987-1989: Market research executive, Nescafe

1989-1994: Market research manager, cider, and Woodpecker brand manager, HP Bulmer

1994-1996: Trade marketing manager, cheese and yellow fats, Kraft Jacobs Suchard

1996-2006: Brand group manager, Pepsi, rising to brand controller, carbonates and central services, Britvic Soft Drinks

2006-present: Head of marketing, AG Barr.