Consumer Group Takes a Whack at Absolut
It sure looks like an Absolut vodka print ad.
But the headline under the familiar glass bottle doesn’t say “Absolut Perfection.” It says “Absolut Nonsense.” And instead of the words “Country of Sweden” etched on the bottle, it says “Country of Swizzlestick.”
The full-page ad, which recently appeared in the renegade magazine Adbusters, mercilessly lampoons the highly successful marketing of Absolut. Even the small print in its parody is biting: “Any suggestion that our advertising campaign has contributed to alcoholism, drunk driving or wife and child beating is absolute nonsense. No one pays attention to advertising.”
This parody is not for laughs. It is one tiny consumer group’s attempt to battle back against Madison Avenue. While the organization has no specific bone to pick with the makers of Absolut, it is spoofing Absolut ads to draw attention to a two-pronged message: Consumers are inundated with too many ads. And worse, the ads stress image over substance.
“Our parody fools people for a split second--and that split second is the moment of truth,” said Kalle Lasn, publisher of Adbusters, the quarterly publication of the Vancouver-based Media Foundation. The foundation tries to act as a North American forum for consumers who object to excess commercialization. “The parody shows people just how much advertising has become a part of their lives.”
Few consumers are familiar with Adbusters. But a number of the same consumers who have recently joined hands with the environmental movement are also increasingly sympathetic to groups that want to place stricter limits on advertising. The thinking is, advertising increases consumption--and overconsumption is harmful to the environment.
“Corporations spend billions and billions of dollars to tell you that you’re supposed to buy things,” said Jerry Mander, senior fellow at the San Francisco-based Public Media Center, a nonprofit agency that creates ads for nonprofit groups such as the Sierra Club. “Some 90% of corporate advertising has no content. It simply creates moods and feelings that the company wants consumers to have.”
One other publication--Utne Reader--takes this topic so seriously that earlier this year it devoted an entire issue to how people can break away from the lure of our consumer culture. “Everywhere we turn we’re being marketed to,” said Eric Utne, publisher of the Minneapolis-based alternative magazine. “We’re not against advertising. We’d just like to see more ads that sell products based on the services they perform rather than their images.”
The creators of the highly successful Absolut vodka campaign say that image is everything in their ads. “Are we creating an image? Of course we are,” said Richard Costello, president of TBWA Advertising in New York. “In the liquor industry, fashion is important. And we want to be the most fashionable. When people order a product like ours by name, they’re making a statement about themselves--and about us.”
Absolut is not amused at being mocked. But it is hesitant to take any legal action that could backfire and draw even more attention to the parody ads.
“We told them we will respond to any further attempt to libel or slander our trademark,” said Keith McIntyre, national marketing manager in Canada for Absolut’s sales agent, Remy Canada Inc. Next week, Adbusters plans to run another Absolut parody ad with the headline, “Absolute Silence.” It features a picture of a coffin above this written copy: “The birthdays, the graduation, the wedding day . . . we were there to toast them all. So, from one great spirit to another, here’s to the most enduring ritual of all.”
Why such a harsh parody? The typical young person sees more than 100,000 alcoholic beverage ads before he or she reaches legal drinking age, Lasn said. And of all alcoholic beverage campaigns, “Absolut’s is the most admired in the industry,” he said. Since the vodka began to be marketed in the United States just a decade ago, it has grown to post $600 million in annual sales in an industry that has generally been declining for more than a decade.
Adbusters has not limited its commercial attacks to Absolut. It has lampooned Calvin Klein in an ad with a striking male model pictured next to the headline, “I Buy. Therefore I Am.” And it parodied a “real people” ad campaign for Winston cigarettes with an ad featuring an attractive woman next to the headline, “If It Wasn’t for Cigarettes, I Wouldn’t Have Cancer.”
Its next likely target: American Express.
An upcoming ad will feature an overweight couple who have clearly over-indulged in the good life. The headline next to them: “American Excess.”
Briefly . . .
C&R; Clothiers, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection this month, has fired Century City-based agency Admarketing from its estimated $14-million account after Jack Roth, agency president and the second largest shareholder of C&R;, sent a letter to C&R; management that--among other things--questioned the spending habits of C&R;’s top management. . . . The Los Angeles agency Mendelsohn/Zien Advertising has won the $2-million ad account for Woodland Hills-based 20th Century Insurance Co. . . . The Los Angeles agency Batey/Poindexter has won four accounts--including Fisher Audio/Video and Varig Brazilian Airlines--worth a combined $5 million in new billings. . . . The Santa Monica agency B.D. Fox & Friends has won the $4-million print ad account for CBS Entertainment. . . . On May 2, Roger Ailes, former political spin doctor to Ronald Reagan and George Bush, will discuss advertising candidates like products, at the Western States Advertising Agency Assn. conference at the Hyatt Grand Champions hotel in Indian Wells.
