USA TODAY: After 25 years and 1,500 versions of print ads built around the shape of its bottle, Absolut vodka is shelving the campaign that made it famous.
Absolut will spend $20 million on a new effort that includes its first TV ads as the brand battles slower growth and tougher competition for vodkas.
“We’re introducing the brand to a new generation of vodka drinkers,” says Tim Murphy, brand director. “Those in their late-20s have come of age in a noisy, chaotic, cluttered vodka category.”
The new campaign, by TBWA/Chiat/Day in New York, pushes the brand as “The Absolut Vodka” and continues to play with the name.
The ads “give new meaning to the word absolute and use different mediums that we haven’t used in the past,” says Matthias Aeppli, Absolut’s vice president of marketing.
…battling ‘absolute indifference’…
I’m glad Absolut cares about me and wants to help with my fractured, frightening and non-alphabatized vodka clutter.
So Choked!
Who in the world would want to change a campaign that not only worked, but helped to create one of the largest brands of Vodka in the world.
I waggle my finger in shame at you TBWA. If it ain’t broke – don’t fix it.