Bombay Sapphire

Closely following in ABSOLUT’s footsteps is that of Bombay Sapphire gin. Also integrating their bottle into every ad, Bombay parallels ABSOLUT by having a unique aspect to each ad; however it is not the bottle’s situation that they change, but rather the martini glass that always accompanies the bottle in the ad. They named this campaign “Inspired” and much like ABSOLUT have had an array of positive feedback. Even some artists have signed on to create their own version of the unique martini glass that is to accentuate the classic frosted blue Bombay Sapphire bottle. Some of these designers have included Vladimir Kagan, Marcel Wanders, Karim Rashid, and Dakota Jackson.


Bombay Sapphire advertising strives to stay focused on the product and the martini glass, though incredibly creative serve to help draw the viewers attention to the ad, while the bottle of Bombay stands there tall, proud, and most of all inviting. The calming blues they use in the ad do not over whelm the view but rather a reader can relax and seemingly sink into the ad. Bombay has also proposed a competition for its drinkers and the public to see who can create the most creative martini glass to be featured in one of their ads.

Bombay Sapphire also runs a few commercials that mirror the simplicity of their ads. Rather than focusing on the beautiful people that drink the product like so many alcohol advertisements on TV do, Bombay sticks to the basics. Usually the bottle is front and center on the screen. An example is the simple gin and tonic ad they made, with bubbles on the screen with letters in them spelling out gin and tonic, and as the screen seems to scroll down then the bottle appears front and center, making the viewer feel as though it is the happy ending.
The selling point of Bombay’s ads are in deed their simplicity and focus on the product itself. There are no distractions or false images to go along with the advertisement and this makes their advertising campaign stand out.

Absolut

First I feel as though I am obligated to start this blog by discussing one of my most favorite alcohol ad campaigns to date—Absolut Vodka. Absolut Vodka was first introduced in the United States in 1979. Their first ad was published in 1980, Absolut Perfection. Since then there have been over thousands of amazingly creative ads published. Being an avid collector of these ads, their attraction stems from their creativity and originality. The campaign started by using creative two to three word captions starting with ABSOLUT, such as ABSOLUT GENEROSITY (1985) as seen below, and the basic and now highly recognizable bottle.

As the ads became more popular and more recognizable ABSOLUT branched out and began using the shape of the bottle rather than the bottle itself in creative situations, such as ABSOLUT PARADISE(1994) seen below.

As the ad campaign’s popularity grew even the fashion business signed on to be featured.

Always seeking to reinvent the creativity of their ads Absolut then tackled popular cities throughout the world to be featured in their ads. Below is one of my favorites ABSOLUT MANHATTAN.

Absolut’s ad campaign became so popular that they made a compilation of their ads in a book. Indeed, nineteen ninety-six brought about the publication of Richard W. Lewis’ Absolut Book which gives insight and examples of the success of the Absolut advertising campaign. This book had fifteen editions and over 300,000 were sold. Last month, October, Richard Lewis did it again, and came out with Absolut Sequel covering the past decade. Equally filled with stories, history, and ads, this book is just as entertaining as the first.

Absolut’s popularity is so renowned that some website featuring the ads even include spoof ads made by advocates. The funniest one featured below is ABSOLUT AA.

However, competition such as Grey Goose and Smirnoff Vodka is threatening Absolut’s market and may force Absolut to take a new take on their advertising strategies. No matter what, this original advertising campaign will not soon be forgotten.