Absolut(e) brand building..!!

No, I haven’t had a drop of Absolut Vodka yet........ But their ads inebriate me!
Before going into advertisements, these are the facts! I donno how much does a pint of Absolut Vodka costs……… I suppose its not that cheap!..

“Absolut Vodka” is a Swedish brand of Vodka owned by V&S group, a Swedish government owned producer and distributor of alcoholic beverages. It comes in different flavours-

PEPPAR- with chilli pepper flavour, 1986
CITRON – lemon flavour, 1988
KURANT- Blackcurrant flavour, 1992
MANDRIN- orange and mandarin flavour mix, 1999.
VANILLA- Vanilla flavour, 2003
RASPBERRI – raspberry flavour, 2004
APEACH- peach flavour ,2005
RUBY RED – grape flavour, 2006
PEARS- pear flavour, 2007

The name Absolut was introduced to differentiate the brand because its refining process resulted in an exquisite preparation of vodka sans fusel alcohol through fractional distillation. The name ABSOLUT became a brand in course of time. The ads were created not to generate controversies but just to draw attention to the shape of bottle in which Absolut Vodka came and the ads had slogans about anything under the sky with an ABSOLUT prefix to it – it went as Absolut clarity to Absolut illusion, Absolut Ankor to Absolut Manhattan, Absolut Jetlag to Absolut Liposuction.

I happened to see just one ‘ Absolut Smoke in the beginning and I became fan of these ads and TBWA which created them.

Have a feel of these and even their spoofs ads here

A living emotion ,a fruit, a scenery, a sky scraper, butterflies, fashion, zodiac signs- all have found expression through absolut vodka ads!..........but are they just visual metaphors. Or is there something absolutely more?

The features as I perceive in an Absolut Vodka ad in general :

Adoption – The company was able to adopt many ideas from the environment for eg: as in Absolut Anticipation or in Absolut Magnetism. In such an adoption there are less constraints as they can adopt from a mere feeling to a fashion exhibition, a musical maestro’s performance, to way a city looks as in Absolut Manhattan or Absolut Singapore. Absolut will have no dearth of ideas.
Color Selection – The color selection of ads for eg: in Absolut Aquarius which is filled with blue, Absolut Pears in green, Absolut Raspberry in red relate with experience and flavour of the product.

All the ads proclaim their “individuality amidst universality” with universally acceptable and recognizable themes given a positive shift towards Absolut Vodka bottle and content.






Now that is Absolut brand building... isnt it?