JKR

The latest limited edition bottle from Absolut is themed “No Label”. It features a removable sticker driving one to a website where we get the manifesto: er, labels are bad things, it’s what’s on the inside that counts.  The related brand blog is intended as a forum for sexual minorities. The bottle itself is left supposedly unbranded (clearly not so with such a distinctive physical) as a signifier of the brand’s belief in not labelling people.

There are a few contradictions in Absolut’s approach. Firstly, the whole “Absolut No Label” theme is simply the latest step in a famous campaign that can only exist because the brand has the label “Absolut”. Secondly for an online blog attacking labels, specifically sexual minority ones, Absolut’s tag cloud reads as a veritable lexicon of labels. Thirdly, somewhere in this campaign’s mix is a post modern echo of Naomi Klein’s “No Logo”, but here we have a brand taking Klein’s critique and inverting its point to sell more product. Finally, of course, there is the inevitable suspicion that the whole theme is cynically designed to sell Absolut to the affluent and opinion forming gay community. And if that isn’t labelling, what is?

The idea that brands can have an editorial feel is an interesting one, and done with the relentlessness and conviction of Howies for example, it carries weight and deepens the brand. Howies, overpriced jeans though they might be, offer a consistently spiky anti-corporate approach in all their touchpoints (see below). But dipping a toe in the water can easily look tokenistic and shallow. Personally when I want to buy into an idea, I prefer it if the idea isn’t selling me something.