For the collector | Absolut: Biography of a Bottle

everything i wanted it to be | Absolut: Biography of a Bottle | Carl Hamilton

books:


	• Absolut: Biography of a Bottle Carl Hamilton Texere, 2000 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Highly Recommended!

Absolut provides a rare behind-the-scenes look into the Madison Avenue minds who are able to manipulate the critical faculties of America as surely as if we'd all downed a double shot straight up. In short, the book details how advertisers were able to fabricate a brand out of a product that consumers could not distinguish from the competition in taste tests. We [...] recommend this immensely enjoyable book as must reading for advertising and marketing professionals, and to anyone interested in understanding how advertisers manipulate consumer tastes.

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For the collector

If you collect absolut vodka items, you must have this book. If you don't ... you'll never understand why it was even published.

everything i wanted it to be

published in '96, it has, as far as i can tell, just about every absolut ad made until the books publication. divided into categories by special artist, or ad period, the images are well sized and are accompanied by a short caption talking about the inspiration behind the concept of the ad.
an excellent coffee table book for anyone who loves the vodka or anyone who loves creative design and advertising. or, if you're like me, both.

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My Rating : LOVE IT, PICK IT UP QUICK!!!

My Brother in law , Rajeev, gave me this book . I was curious when I saw the cover page and name of book and started out.

Cary Hamilton has written a hilarious , fascinating and thorough description of how Absolut was established. It starts our right from the conception stage of the bottle , when Gunnar Broman , the wacky Sweden ad agency head, heads with his team to Madison Square and tries to sell the concept of a Swedish Vodka.

The book captures the various difficulties he encounters while trying to sell this concept to the agencies in the US. The shape of the bottle is something that was hotly discussed , laughed at and equaled to that of a medicine bottle.....This whole bit is beautiful. Its interesting to also learn of how Lars Lindmark, the man behind the initiative manages around the National Liquor Monopoly of Sweden . ( Btw : Do you know that Sweden had a history of keeping liquor sales under control).

The beauty and the main emphasis is on the various platforms Broman creates, how they position it and how it was established. Even funnier are the initial bit of selling the bottles ( initially they were just trying to get the concept sold, now the real stuff). The book goes on to talk about TBWA and N W Ayer and how Gunnar Broman gets sidelined in the fight for advterising for absolute.

I could go on and on about this book, but the beauty of this book would really be appreciated if you can look at how many twist and turns there was in this story, how they were able to come out of it successfully , innovative advertising and top of it deal with the bureaucracy of the Liquor monopoly.

And yeah remember, this is post Smirn off !!!!!!

Once you read this book, you would be dying to grab a bottle of absolute and admire the beauty of it .........Read on ....there's a lot I haven't told you about J

Btw, I read this book in 2 days and trust me am not the type who reads for long hours

http://www.bloglines.com/blog/PrashantP

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Absolutly Absolut

Absolut Vodka is a contemporary phenomenon. First exported to America in 1979, Absolut Vodka quickly soared to one of the best-selling premium vodkas in the world today. It is an overnight success... an overnight success since 1879, for it was then vodka was first sold under the name Absolut. Yet, Swedish vodka has its roots in the 15th century when Swedes first started distilling spirits called "bränvin", literally "burnt wine". Made from grain or imported wine, these spirits were originally used mostly as medicine and for making gunpowder. The first alcohol restrictions had nothing to do with sobriety; distilled spirits were needed for Sweden's war machine. Human nature being what it is, however, people soon found spirits had a number of more recreational uses. By the 17th century, the distilled spirit that is referred to as vodka had become a national drink.

The phenomenal success of Absolut Vodka has only one precedent: the success of the man who introduced it. Successful businessman at 10 and entrepreneur at 14, Lars Olsson Smith controlled one third of all the vodka in Sweden while he was still learning to shave. For almost half of the 19th century he was known as "The King of Vodka". In 1879, he introduced a new kind of vodka called "Absolut Rent Bränvin" (Absolute Pure Vodka) which was produced using a revolutionary new distillation method. The method was called rectification, a method still in use today. Without knowing it, Lars Olsson Smith had introduced what exactly a century later would become Absolut Vodka.

This book is the fascinating inside story of the Absolut advertising campaign, one of the most successful ever produced. It was in the summer of 2000 that the TBWA advertising agency marked the 20th anniversary of Absolut Vodka by putting out a stunning brochure. On the cover is the now-classic Absolut bottle, under spotlights, uncapped, and ready to be photographed and poured. The title on the cover page is in tiny white letters and reads: "In celebration of Absolut Vodka's 20 years in America, we invited 20 people to share with us their favorite Absolut ad. Happy Anniversary!"

Inside are the 20 celebs photographed by Annie Liebowitz of Vanity Fair. You can read all about it in this memorable biography of a bottle, for if ever a bottle called out for a bio, this strange little bottle that looks like something from an apothecary shop is the one. Placing it on the shelves of the U.S. liquor stores made some careers and broke others, won awards for some and had them suddenly whisked away, and created fortunes and brought down a ministry. Extra, Extra, Read All About It!

The author is Carl Hamilton, who is one of Sweden's leading columnists known for his dark wit and wisdom. He creates vivid scenes that border on the surreal as he describes all of the pressures and special interests that were focused on creating this one product. He includes everyone, from the PR jocks who were fighting for their ideas to the advertising agencies who were jockeying for position, rejecting the ideas, and then claiming them as their own. He even includes the Swedish government in the mix, just for kicks.

Absolut is all about making money, promoting advertising, preaching politics and pop culture, and documenting the high-flying 1980s all rolled into one giant cocktail, complete with some wicked ironies and a few heartbreaks in the end. There's Gunnar Broman, the Swedish `adman' who overcomes all opposition to push his ideas, and is ultimately pushed out by the Madison Avenue moneymen. There's William Burroughs, one of the first Americans to taste the Swedish vodka. There's the Frankenstein-like creature who labors in the foul-smelling basement on the Stockholm docks to create the famous bottle. Also pictured are Gore Vidal, Philippe Starck, and Julian Schnabel; Philip Glass at his piano with pencils and eraser on his Absolut ad, as if he composed it himself. Even Susan Sontag is at her desk, familiar white stripes in her hair, elbow perched on a writing pad, with reading glasses on a clean whit sheet, with a single thumbprint: ABSOLUT EVIDENCE.

All in all, Hamilton reveals how something is made out of nothing, while clearly enjoying every minute of the storytelling. Cheers!

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This book is the ?official story? of how Absolut Vodka came to be. Carl Hamilton found that publishing this book in Swedish would cost him his job at a prestigious economics institute. When he published an expanded version of a research project based on a research project commissioned by the liquor company, Vin and Spirit, he lost his job at the Stockholm School of Economics. His book credits Absolut?s huge popularity to the ?little guys? rather than to the suits at large ad agencies. This book is the Liar?s Poker of marketing, revealing the sordid stories behind the official one.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3

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