ABSOLUT VODKA ADS

THE ADVERTISING CAMPAIGN for Absolut vodka was recently voted one of the ten best of the 20th century. That may finally put to rest the debate on whether it was the ads, the unique bottle design or the boycott of Russian vodka after the invasion of Afghanistan that made Absolut the bestselling imported vodka in the North American market, and the seventh most sold liquor in the world.

By spending more than any other label on brilliant advertising and promotions, Michel Roux of Carillon Importers ensured that the sales of the Swedish brand accelerated in an otherwise declining market. Discarding the industry's typical "bottle and glass" ads, Geoff Hayes of the TBWA agency created the first Absolut Perfection ad featuring the short-necked clear bottle wearing a halo. Instant success.

This was incidentally the same bottle that marketing research to the tune of $ 78 000, had claimed would fail because it did not have a paper label and because the neck was too small for the bartenders to get a hold on. In Absolut Original the bottle was carved in stone as if it was pre-historic. In Absolut Manhattan a satellite photo of New York projected central park shaped like a bottle. In Absolut Seattle a rain puddle had the bottle shape and in Absolut L.A. a swimming pool was designed in the now famous bottle shape.

The city ads have become some of the most popular Absolut ads. In Absolut San Francisco you hardly see the bottle for the fog. In Absolut Chicago the wind is blowing away the lettering from the bottle. In Absolut D.C. the bottle is covered in red tape.

Many European cities have also been featured, like Absolut Copenhagen where the entrance to Tivoli is converted to the the now well-known bottle shape. When Holmenkollen was similarly converted for Absolut Oslo, the locals cried foul, not wanting to associate their much-loved sport with alcohol. In Absolut Berlin it was a piece of the wall and in Absolut Naples a lampshade and hanging laundry that cleverly imitated the shape of the bottle.

The greatest breakthrough for Absolut came when the daughter of the Swedish Ambassador to the USA, Titti Wachtmeister talked Andy Warhol into painting a celebrity portrait (at $65 000) of the bottle. The pop artist was enthralled because although he never drank any alcohol he used Absolut as a cologne. Absolut Warhol was soon followed by ads with many unknown or trendy painters, sculptors, photographers and arts and craft people. For artists like the Brazilian painter Britto, the Absolut commission was a commercial breakthrough. In all Absolut has run almost 500 advertisements featuring artists, and the art community still talks about the 32-page Absolut Glasnost, featuring young Russian painters. Similar series have featured African, American, Swedish, South American and other artists.

Absolut ads have become a collectors item and many galleries actually sell old cut out ads. There are several books about the ads and the Absolut software (1-800-568-1566) that is a virtual museum of Absolut art.

The first seasonal Absolut advertisement extravaganza was a much-talked about microchip playing Christmas carols in 1987. Later ads have included a packet of seeds (Absolut Spring), Donna Karan mittens; designer silk scarves and panty hose all sporting the Absolut bottle. In 1990 the New York magazine had a working fortyeight piece Absolut Puzzle. Another Christmas the agency created an ad with a snow flake-filled pouch so that Absolut Wonderland snowed as if it was in a glass ball when you shook it.

One year Absolut inserted a sheet of stamps with its Warhol, Haring and Rusha ads with an 80 proof denomination. The stamps were actually accepted by most post offices as legal postage.
For an ad in Playboy magazine, Absolut created an Absolut Centerfold with a bottle without any text on it but with an accompanying "playmate data sheet" complete with things like "the perfect night: at home with my closest friends, Sven, Björn, Ingmar, while jumping back and forth between the sauna and ice baths, we exchange our favourite gravlax recipes."

If it had not been for Absolut and its "extender products" Pepper, Currant, Citron and Mandrin, the world may never have realized that Sweden had a substantial liquor production. Thanks to the campaign, Absolut may now be more famous than Volvo.

Today it is the House of Seagrams that distributes Absolut in North America, after Michel Roux and Carillon Importers (who took the vodka from nothing to 3 million cases a year) was booted out by the Swedish Vin & Sprit monopoly. The successful Absolut marketing formula perfected in the U. S.A. is now practiced all over the world.

The advertising campaign has also led to many parodies. Mad magazine ran Absolut Liver with an x-ray of a liver that has a silhouette of - guess what? In Absolut Winter you see a virgin snow-covered background on which a man is urinating and thereby drawing a yellow pattern in the snow of - you guessed it.

When the advertising critical Adbusters ran ads entitled Absolut Nonsense, Absolut Impotence and Absolut Silence, the producers threatened to sue the magazine. The Absolut Nonsense copy stated "any suggestion that our advertising campaign has contributed to alcoholism, drunk driving or wife and child beating is absolute nonsense. No one pays any attention to advertising."

Scandinavian Press, Issue 1, 2000