Absolut Vodka Cut, above, is just the latest in a series of the Swedish brand’s embrace of the LGBT community which dates back to 1981, before it was fashionable.

Starting with ads in The Advocate and After Dark, and extending to charitable and cause-related donations and outdoor advertising, Absolut is marking its three-decade relationship with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered community with a yearlong anniversary campaign, “Absolut Outrageous” (“Out” appears in pink), featuring the tagline: “Celebrating 30 years of going out and coming out.”

Now that it’s popular, established marketers like Procter & Gamble, Unilever, General Motors, Macy’s, Campbell Soup, Orbitz, PepsiCo and American Airlines are all on the LGBT bandwagon. But Absolut was the “first big brand to commit to and pursue the market” by being “the first continuously present major brand in gay media,” said Michael Wilke, former executive director of the Commercial Closet Association, now senior U.S. consultant for Out Now Consulting.Continue reading...

Absolut launches gay pride campaign.

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Facebook to build server farm near Arctic Circle.

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Groupon culls its sales staff.

Iconix acquires Sharper Image brand.

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Warner Bros withholds films from Blockbuster, matches Netflix and Redbox 28-day release window.

YouTube is preparing to launch celebrity and branded channels to promote original content.

SoCo with a Kick

Brown-Forman’s Southern Comfort is joining the flavoured spirits trend, but instead of going for sweet, like Jack Daniel's Tennessee Honey or Jim Beam’s cherry-flavored Red Stag, SoCo is bringing out the spice with its new Southern Comfort Fiery Pepper.

The liqueur is splashed with Tabasco and aimed at the shot-drinking young male market as well as being promoted as a key ingredient for spicy cocktails. The brand surely hopes the new product will be a shot in the arm, as the overall Southern Comfort brand had an 11 percent drop in revenue during the quarter that ended July 31.Continue reading...

ABSOLUT Mode: Reflections of Fashion

The ever-chic ABSOLUT brand continues its long association with the world of high fashion with the ABSOLUT Mode Edition, a 12-faceted bottle wrapped in a silk cloth design and a sleek ad campaign starring model Shannan Click, shot by Sharif Hamza. The bottle is now available exclusively at Selfridges and Harvey Nichols in the UK, and after Sept. 5, the special edition will be sold at other major UK retailers.

British designer Gareth Pugh has designed an even more exclusive edition of the bottle featuring a “batwing” design inspired by the iconic “Stealth” jacket from his Autumn 2007 collection. This limited edition bottle will only be available after Sept. 7 by going to the W London Insider at the W London in Leicester Square and saying the password “Reflections of Fashion.” No word on the price for this bottle or how many will be available, so latecomers may find themselves speaking nonsense for nothing.Continue reading...

Global markets swoon after yesterday’s disaster on Wall Street.

Borden steps out with “Friends of Elsie” campaign.

Comcast and DirecTV engage in legal battle over advertising about NFL broadcasts.

Discovery Communications continues with upbeat reports.

Dodge leverages NASCAR to tout new Durango.

Dunkin’ Brands to boost prices to cover commodity-cost increases.Continue reading...

Absolut is building on its long collaboration with musical and visual artists from Spike Lee to Damien Hirst with a black-and-white film, “Cee Lo Distilled,” following a day in the life of Gnarls Barkley’s Cee Lo Green. The trailer (above) has already been released, with part 1 of the film debuting June 27 and part 2 coming out July 6, both on Absolut’s Facebook page.

But wait! There’s more. As part of Green’s partnership with Absolut, the singer will be a “guest editor” on Absolut’s Facebook page for 10 days surrounding the film’s launch with a Facebook app, “Forget You” (a reference to the clean version of his hit single) that will allow Cee Lo to “send a custom video message direct, commenting on friends’ Relationship Status updates.” Who knows what he might have to say, especially if he’s been at that Absolut!Continue reading...

Absolut is paying its respects to San Francisco with a new flavored vodka, following in the wake of past citified special editions for New Orleans, Los Angeles, Boston and Brooklyn. Absolut SF’s somewhat esoteric mix of grape, dragon fruit and papaya is designed to capture the “unique cultures, ethnicities and culinary delights of San Francisco” and entice drinkers with a “bold flavor when mixing a perfect cocktail.”

The brand is tying the latest entrant in its Absolut Cities campaign with a Facebook page, “What’s Your Absolut SF?” that encourages city residents to share their stories, as well as inviting prominent San Francisans such as Digg founder Kevin Rose and DJ Miguel Migs to collaborate with the brand on various projects. Absolut is also donating $50,000 to Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco as part of the campaign. Continue reading...

Absolut is going exotic with its new Wild Tea vodka featuring a campaign with Karen O of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. But the flavor was originally associated with a good old Yankee city that no one would call exotic: Boston. It’s a study not only in product testing, but in marketing a very similar product in vastly different ways.Continue reading...