• Adweek, Tuesday, May 1, 2007 11 AM

A new marketing effort for Absolut vodka focuses on an imaginary world where men get pregnant, smokestacks blow bubbles and protesters fight with pillows. With four TV spots, print, Web and outdoor ads, the $45 million global campaign rolls this week.

While previous ads compared Absolut to icons like the Statue of Liberty and Steve McQueen, these use humor, like when a confrontation between cops and demonstrators turns into a pillow fight. "It's not necessarily about perfection, but about making the world better by seeing it with fresh eyes," says Rob Smiley, creative director at Omnicom Group's TBWACD, which created the campaign.

For Tim Murphy, senior brand director at the Absolut Spirits Co. here, "Our consumers are intelligent, and we hope they have a gut reaction that sparks conversations and challenges them to think about their vision of an 'Absolut world'." The first TV spot in the U.S. will break May 14 and the first print work will appear in June editions of magazines like Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone.

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