August 13, 2005

Absolut Metropolis

In its new campaign "Absolut Metropolis, the vodka brand Absolut picked up eleven "creative types" off the streets of Tokyo and asked them to put together an outfit/artwork inspired by the "Absolut" brand. I can't tell from the website whether these are "real" amateurs or recent Bunka graduates or what, but each individual conveniently has a different extreme-subcultural style. Put together, they are like a street-fashion Justice League Jr..

I must say there is something refreshing about the relatively unrefined nature of the models/costumes, but I still loathe the idea of taking creative people (or their more easily-obtainable equivalent) and telling them, "Okay, all that's great, but can't you make something inspired by a corporation? Hey, you, Rockabilly guy! Can you make the Teddy Boy hairdo reflect Alfred in Human Resources and the wallet chain be a statement on our just-in-time supply chain management system?" Brands can be an artistic source for imagination and inspiration, but only if you forget all the business reality behind the product - which is exactly what companies would like you to do in the first place.

This ad in particular would work better as publicized patronage than being forced into the frame of "brand inspired art." None of those "kids" really remixed Absolut as much as they just did their normal thing and got paid for it. It's like that apocryphal story about Aphex Twin: a major label came knocking on Richard James' door one day looking for its band's overdue remix, and since he hadn't even started, James just handed them some unrelated work, which the band ended up loving because they could hear exactly what Aphex did to the original song. Same goes here: the Marie Honda doll is only an Absolut ad if Absolut says it is and you peep at the final work through a tiny keyhole. But so is our modern advertising world, where corporations spend huge sums of money to force non-advertising into the straight-jacket of product endorsement. I'd be happy if these kids got paid for their work, but stop pretending like they did it for the vodka.

Posted by marxy at August 13, 2005 12:58 PM
Comments

I'm only in it for the vodka.

Posted by: der at August 13, 2005 8:06 PM

As an addendum to the Aphex story, it was supposed to be a Lemonheads track.

Posted by: joey at August 14, 2005 1:36 AM

Which Lemonheads song? This seems like a ridiculous proposal from the start.

Posted by: marxy at August 15, 2005 2:39 AM

but since Absolut has been doing this for a VERY long time now, how is this in any way "newsworthy"?

Posted by: Chris_B at August 16, 2005 12:21 AM

I was wondering who is supposed to be the target of this campaign. The content is bilingual, and Absolut had a Japanese art director selecting the artists - so is Absolut trying to sell Japanese subculture to the mainstream Japanese? Or is it simply another attempt to sell Japanese contemporary/underground culture as perceived by a non-Japanese to other non-Japanese?

If the target is the Japanese market, I very much doubt that this approach will work - the artists will probably scare off the average salaryman (or even university student) instead of convincing them to give Absolut vodka a try.

Posted by: calpispatrick at August 16, 2005 12:16 PM

I think this is very much trying to sell Japan to the West. Yes, you're right: These models are Japan's social rejects to a certain extent and they are not going to get domestic big spenders revved up to buy Absolut.

Posted by: marxy at August 16, 2005 12:40 PM

About them remixers, I believe acts like The Orb had been doing that well before Mr. James upped the ante by flaunting the "revelation". I believe he then augmented the story by saying he kept a box of cassettes of his studio noodlings and he would just pull one out at random as the next remix comission.

And yes, a bunch of my acquaintances have been "ABSOLUT their name" over the decades, one drew up Satan drinking the stuff in hell.

It's a very cheap way of getting artwork that doesn't look like what everyone else's agencies are doing. Like MTV, there's always 2 not quite made it yet artists who will do it for next to nothing or ego for every one who turns them down.

Posted by: ndkent at August 20, 2005 11:20 PM