I didn’t know to feel when I read that Absolut is retiring it’s iconic ad campaign after 25 years of abundancy, especially as much of Absolut’s fame is directly tied to it. The campaign, featuring an object shaped like the distinctive Absolut bottle in the center and a title “ABSOLUT ____” at the bottom, started around 1980 and has had more than 1500 ads, making it the longest running ad campaign ever.

The Absolut Vodka bottle has become something of a modern icon, and the Absolut ads, having stretched the boundaries between advertising and art, have already been collector’s items for years. I’m sure their value as such will increase exponentially with the retirement of the campaign, making me wish that I buy/bought magazines.

Over the past 25 years, chosen artists, including sculptors like Arman, crystal glass designers like Bertil Vallien, fashion designers like David Cameron and John Galliano, were given complete creative freedom, the only stipulation being that the bottle must be visible in the work. The campaign has even made it to an 11 meter high ice-sculpture done in the Swiss Alps, and features works of every conceivable style from Dali-type surrealism to cowboy-kitsch.

Naturally, the campaign also has a golden star in the hall of fame of the advertising and design industries. Absolut is to date one of only three brands inducted into the American Marketing Association’s Hall of Fame, along with Coca-Cola and Nike. It is also the only product in history to have won both the most coveted prizes in the US advertising business – the Effie and the Kelly awards. On a scholastic level, complete design courses that dissect the campaign and nothing else are offered in several art schools. Even locally, I have seen the campaign make its appearance on slideshows and presentations a lot of times in my design classes at the UofJ.

Of course every campaign has to see an end, but 25-years is such a long run that I’m actually absolut sad to see it go.

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