Absolut: Biography of a Bottle

While conducting research in business ethics, Carl Hamilton discovered that the official history of Absolut's advertising success was somewhat less than 100 per cent pure. The ideas behind the campaign should have been credited to the junior guys, not to the high-profile ad men on Madison Avenue, nor to the suits at hip TBWA. The history of the bottle began in the 1970s with three Swedish designers. Their concept broke every rule; it was everything a vodka bottle cannot - must absolutely not - be. The design, however, won the award for the year's best American design and a Madison Avenue ad agency took the credit. The Swedish vodka in the ugly bottle made a chance debut at Studio 54 and became a huge success. Every ad agency involved claimed the triumph for themselves - especially those that initially rejected the winning design. When Vin & Spirits - the state-owned producer of Absolut - discovered that Hamilton was to write a book about his findings, they tried every strong-arm tactic to halt its publication. The book, however, became an instant bestseller in Sweden.