Description: The ideas behind the campaign, he reveals, should be credited to the junior guys, the underdogs, not to the high profile ad men on Madison Avenue, nor to the suits at hip TBWA. The history of the short, rounded bottle begins in the 1970s with three Swedish designers in a bad-smelling Stockholm basement. Their concept breaks every rule in the book; it is everything a vodka bottle can-not -- must absolutely not -- be. The design, however, happens to win the award for the year's best American design and a Madison Avenue ad agency takes the credit. A few years later, two young, unruly assistants at TBWA conceive the witty, unconventional two-word formula: Absolut Perfection, Absolut Magic, and so on. Again, others take credit. The Swedish vodka in the ugly bottle makes a chance debut at Studio 54 and soon becomes a huge success. In the end, every ad agency involved claims the triumph for themselves -- especially those that initially rejected the winning designs.

When Vin & Spirits -- the state-owned producer of Absolut -- discovered that Hamilton was to write a book about his findings (and to give credit to whom credit is overdue) they tried every strong-arm tactic to halt its publication. Hamilton refused to cave in to their terms, although they leaned on the university and subsequently got him fired. The book, however, became an instant best-seller in Sweden and won the prize for "Best Journalism of the Year".

Absolut is based on interviews with all the major players, sketches, marketing plans, and correspondence as well as an investigation of the industry. With the New York club scene and the history of American advertising as a backdrop, Hamilton wittily reveals sordid discoveriesabout corporate rivalries, flagrant hypocrisy, and creative burnout. Within this Liar's Poker of advertising are many layers of secrets and truths about the industry for the perceptive reader to ponder.

Please Wait