Almost every popular magazine in modern day has seen one of its advertisements. The bottle is ingeniously placed in one aspect or another, whether subliminally placed so that you eye will focus in on it, or right there with a catchy slogan. It is the Absolute Vodka bottle, and it has been around for more than fifteen years.

     Since its inception in 1981, the Absolute campaign has been one of the most exceptional rhetoric campaigns to date. Absolute proves that advertising is more than an excellent product; it is an art form. The following is an analysis of the rhetoric used in the Absolute advertising campaign through the viewpoint of Tony Schwartz's Evoked Recall Method.

     In order to define the campaign as a whole we will first examine the history of the campaign and then explore its basic roots. Since its troubles in the early seventies, Absolute's sales had been lacking. They realized that in order to bring new business it would have to export to America. Unfortunately, Stolichnaya Vodka, who had been importing since 1968 by Pepsi-Cola, cornered the imported vodka market.

     Stockholm, Vin & Spirits, who own the brand, set a delegation to America to attempt to raise perceptions and its hopes. They contacted a relatively new advertising firm called TBWA founded by Bill Tragos and three other colleagues. Faced with a unique challenge to conquer an already cornered market, TBWA set in to accomplish just that. They sent Carol Anne Fine, the creative director, on the attempt to come up with an ad campaign. She in turn gave the go ahead to Geoff Haynes and Graham Turner, who were both from out of country TBWA sites. Carol's thoughts who to give an imported product to a team who had already worked in foreign markets.

     Going on the view that most campaigns are uncreative and dull, the team came up with two campaigns that would state what they wanted to say. The first was a Swede nationalism campaign, explaining Swedish culture and the product. This was to counter Stolichnaya's campaign that was already in effect pushing the Russian vodka's long heritage and tradition. The downside of this campaign strategy was its basis. Imitation in advertising is crippling at best. Unless combined with a humorous or mocking tone, the campaign inherently fails before it begins.

     The second campaign was the one Haynes and Turner thought would work. Geoff Haynes was doodling one night over the Honeymooners when something struck him. He was drawing picture after picture of the bottle itself and decided to play with the image. He drew a small halo around the bottlešs rim. He came up with the tag line, "Absolut. It's the perfect vodka!" When he showed the drawing to his partner Turner, he stated simply, "Why not call it Absolut perfection." Thus, a legend was born.

     They showed the ad to Bill Tragos and he gave the go ahead. Stockholm, Vin & Spirits originally doubted the concept but decided to fund it anyway. They had a few problems with the first shoot and decided to rework the ad a little. But in the end, the first ad went out.

     The campaign has been running from 1981 to the present and is one of the most long-lived advertising campaigns in a market, which changes dramatically. Now that we have seen a small historical aspect of the campaign we will analyze the campaign itself.

     The campaign was a relatively simple concept. Two words. The first word always is Absolut and the second whatever they wished to describe. The bottle was always shown in the beginning of the campaign, but then adapted into a somewhat subliminal campaign. Absolut ads started running with different aspects: Absolut cities, artists, and even model photographers were used in the campaign. Many different holiday shots were used as well to produce an effect of product recognition. As a result, Absolut sales rose from 20,000 cases nationally in 1981, to 3 million cases in 1995, an increase of over 14,900 percent (Lewis, 1996).

     Now that we have seen an overview of the campaign itself we can explore a methodological analysis of the Absolut campaign. The first aspect of the analysis is a rhetorical comparison of the campaign with Tony Swartz's Evoked Recall Method. Secondly, we will examine the campaign's successes. Schwartz's Evoked Recall Method is based on the view that it is better to get a response out of the audience than to place one inside their heads, it relies on the set experiences all of us have inside of our minds about a particular subject or opinion. Schwartz originally tested the model in radio advertisements, to see what would obtain results from different sounds.

     His first test was a baby crying on a commercial over the radio. The agent wanted to have a baby cry to give a sense of disease to the expectant mothers who would then buy their product, baby powder. The sound of crying resonated with the experiences that mothers have had with children (not necessary their own). This view of resonance keyed certain experiences to pop up in the receiver's minds and then help to persuade them. It uses people's perceptions and experiences to convince them rather than pushing the product into the minds of the receivers. This is a very powerful and useful model, which sums up the Absolut advertising campaign to a tee.

     In many ads of the Absolut campaign they use evoked recall to shows its product. Many of the Absolut city ads run on the idea of summing up what the city's main experience is and resonating that within the receiver. Absolut New Orleans, a picture of a trumpet with three Absolut bottles as the trumpet's valves sums up the city perfectly. Since New Orleans is known for jazz music using the trumpet with Absolut bottles resonates with the experiences felt by visiting New Orleans.

     Often many of the Absolut ads use pictures or symbols related to events we have already experienced to draw out realization of the product. According to Advertising Age of September 3, 1996, "Absolut's genius is combining images we already know, their bottle and our memories." Even the Absolut movie segment of the campaign uses images and view we already have experienced. Absolute Wells shows the picture of the bottle being invisible but the writing is not. This goes with the movie The Invisible Man written by H.G. Wells.

     Based on the analysis of the persuasive campaign by Schwartz's evoked recall method, we can see the success of the campaign. Absolut does evoke experiences already held by the receiver. It follows all of the criteria set forward by Tony Schwartz. Therefore, the success of the campaign is unchangeable. Not only based on the opinion of Schwartz's Evoked Recall Method, but by the pure number of sales alone.

     Absolut has changed very little in all its years, since its conception in 1981 to today it has not really changed. The concept remains the same; it is the different images it uses to evoke a response that changes. Now that we have examined a brief history of and description of the campaign, as well as an analysis based on Schwartz's Evoked Recall Method, we can see that the Absolut campaign is indeed successful.

     Although it has been around since 1879, the bottle is much more than it seems. Absolut has achieved one of the most important tasks in advertising, product recognition. In many ways they do that without the bottle even being visible. Fraternity members will still trade and collect the ads as long as one thing remains, Absolut Ingenuity.

     Alsworth, H. "Absolut Concept." Advertising Age. Fall 1996. Volume 32. 45-47

     Larson, C. Persuasion: Reception and Responsibility. Wadsworth Publishing: New York, 1998.

      Lewis, R. Absolut Book. Journey Editions, Boston, 1996