(Bloomberg) -- Sweden's Absolut, aiming to turn around years of stagnant sales, is launching a global ad campaign that emphasizes the transparency of its vodka while testing the modesty of its staff.
In the video, employees ranging from farmers to Chief Executive Officer Anna Malmhake appear in the nude at the Pernod Ricard SA-owned brand's distillery in Sweden. It explains that Absolut is “the vodka with nothing to hide,” as it's made purely from local wheat and water. The production process contrasts with that of rival Smirnoff, which owner Diageo Plc distills in several countries, including the U.S.
With the new, digitally focused campaign, Absolut is seeking to regain the cult status it enjoyed in its 1980s heyday, when the bottle was painted on canvas by artist Andy Warhol and featured in magazine advertisements. The Swedish brand's sales in the U.S. fell to $947 million in 2016 from $1.24 billion four years earlier, according to industry tracker IWSR, as it lost ground to upstarts like Tito's Handmade vodka and as surging demand for classic cocktails favored darker spirits like bourbon.
“If I look at the past decade, we've sometimes forgotten the lesson from the 1980s,” Malmhake said in an interview.
U.S. Sales
The video features a naked male actor who plays the role of an employee named Gunnar. He emerges from behind a hay bale, pixelated where necessary, and leads viewers into fields of winter wheat from which Absolut is distilled, then through a vodka production line.
The ad was created by Bartle Bogle Hegarty, an agency owned by Publicis Groupe SA of France. Its “Keep Walking” campaign for Diageo's Johnnie Walker Scotch whisky helped to prompt a surge in that brand's sales.
Malmhake said that after some awkward opening moments, the shoot “felt like a tea party.”
“It's lucky there aren't only Swedes working here, otherwise there would be no pixelation,” she said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Buckley in London at tbuckley25@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Eric Pfanner at epfanner1@bloomberg.net, John J. Edwards III
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