Absolut wants to make downloading Drinkspiration, its iTunes cocktail guide app for the iPhone and iPad, as easy as pouring a stiff one.

The vodka brand has introduced a Quick Response (QR) neck collar on 200,000 bottles of Absolut and Absolut Naturals. The technology allows consumers to wave the collar over their iPhones and instantly download the app for free.Continue reading...

Four Loko Lives on in the Hearts of Yale Pranksters
Today marks the last day you can legally purchase Four Loko in the U.S., spurring concerns that Red Bull and vodka will make a comeback.

But if you thought you'd heard the last of Four Loko as it is being banned across the country, think again. The caffeinated alcoholic beverage lives on at Yale as fodder for a prank email delivered to student inboxes this week.

An email making the rounds, supposedly sent by James M. Perlotto, the university's chief of student health, starts out sounding official enough. It reminds Yalies that today is the last day that Four Loko can legally be purchased in Connecticut.

It's the "facts" about Four Loko presented in the email that give the game away, including a claim that 4 out of 5 people in an insane asylum were committed because of Four Loko-induced madness.

The email ends with a plea NOT to buy pro-Loko T-shirts bearing the image at right ... while giving specific details about where and when to buy them and how much they cost. We think someone's got a bright future in marketing.

After the jump: Walmart Wine, Disappearing Beer and "Liking" Heineken.Continue reading...

A couple of British holiday campaigns from beer brands caught our attention this week.

Grolsch is keeping it classy this Christmas with a video greeting (above) featuring the "Swingtop Philharmonic Orchestra" playing Oh Christmas Tree with its swingtop bottles.

Serious-looking musicians blow on the bottles, tap them and use them to play other instruments. An impressive percussion instrument/Christmas tree made of the bottles is revealed in the final shot. The spot is inventive and feels authentic — unlike another, more cringe-worthy, holiday beerfest. 

Guinness invited British electro-folk musician James Yuill to play Jingle Bells on glasses of Guinness for its holiday campaign. He's shown turning a pub into a techno dance party with everyone merrily playing along on their pints. It's not so much the spot that irks, as what Guinness is doing with it. See what we mean after the jump.Continue reading...

While the idea that men have a hard time expressing their feelings may be a stereotype, it's a funny one in the hands of Johnnie Walker, which has created a holiday campaign based on the idea that men don't like to tell each other how they feel. Not to mention that they'd like to make any kind of gift shopping as quick and painless as possible.

The brand's Say It Without Saying It campaign features riffs on the theme that men don't show their feelings when giving gifts, so need translation (hence the gift translator, above). The spots (watch them after the jump) portray brotherly and son-in-law gifting of Johnnie Walker, with a window into what the gift-giver and recipient want to, but don't, say.Continue reading...

Some brand owners see strategic value in consolidating their brands under a unified corporate structure, using size to leverage its marketing power and achieve economies of scale. This makes perfect sense when a company manages many brands in similar categories that serve similar markets, as in the case of Procter & Gamble.

But then there are those companies whose brand holdings are in diverse categories, each of which requires a specialized approach to marketing and distribution. In this case, a consolidated business model may become a barrier to further growth.

So it is with Fortune Brands, which has announced its intention to separate the company into three unique businesses representing its distinct consumer product lines.Continue reading...

Heineken has been having fun with its package design, rolling out a special edition aluminum bottle (dubbed the STR, above) which reveals a nightclub-ready hidden design by black light.

On a more serious note, however, the Dutch beer brand unveiled a major bottle redesign on Dec. 1st. No disco trickery, no hype — and no Brad Pitt. Just a unified visual identity across the brand's bottles and cans. With one major exception, that is.Continue reading...

Pernod Ricard absolutely doesn't want Absolut ... associated with hot female bartenders. 

The beverages giant has pulled the vodka brand from a calendar for Revolution Vodka Bars in the UK, featuring their staffers in provocative poses.Continue reading...

New Winter Wonderland of Alcoholic Whipped Cream

The holiday spirit is often helped along with alcoholic spirits, from booze-soaked fruitcake to hot buttered rum. Now even your most innocent of holiday desserts (pumpkin pie, anyone?) can go from nice to a little bit naughty with the addition of alcoholic whipped cream. Two brands have been released in recent months: CREAM (“Get Whipped”) and Whipped Lighting (sold as Whipahol). Both are selling well.

Coming in the wake of the Four Loko debacle, apparently some college officials are concerned about the trend, but we really don't think they should be getting their silver bells in a bunch. While both brands contain an alcohol content of 15%, about the same alcohol as three beers, that's if you consume the whole can. Probably more danger here of the dreaded "freshman 15" weight gain than of alcohol abuse.

After the jump: Ciroc and P. Diddy, Johnnie Walker takes Manhattan, and some festive red noses at the pub.Continue reading...