An Andy Warhol painting, believed lost for decades, has risen—like a campy, cerulean phoenix—to make headlines and power Absolut’s latest ad campaign.

The artwork in question—rendered in hues of blue—depicts one of the brand’s vodka bottles. Absolut tapped Warhol to create the piece in 1985, along with a second, more colorful representation.

The latter was immortalized in a famous print and billboard series. But the blue version wasn’t used at the time. In fact, the silk-screen’s whereabouts long remained unknown, and its existence lapsed into legend.

Until the gem surfaced at an auction in 2020.

Now, it fronts an Absolut initiative from The Mix Stockholm and Parapix director Santiago Sierra Soler. The push includes limited-edition bottles, videos, OOH elements and retail displays.

“Warhol was a big supporter of Absolut’s mission,” says VP, marketing Matt Foley. “And now that the ‘blue’ painting has finally been rediscovered, we’re excited to honor his legacy with this new bottle as a way for consumers to have a piece of his art in their homes.”

And you won’t have to pay six figures.

The painting itself will be exhibited as part of a Warhol show at Stockholm’s Spritmuseum in October.

In the future, all of us may become world-famous for 15 minutes. But Andy’s cultural relevance—and power to boost brands—will never wind down.

“It’s only natural that we’d partner with Heinz on this ultimate collaboration between two iconic brands, with two iconic bottles, says Leanne Banks, U.K. marketing director at Absolut parent Pernod Ricard.

She adds: “Absolut was born to mix, whether that’s in delicious drinks or fun food combinations. Now fans of our brand can enjoy Absolut in an entirely new and innovative way.”

Running for 25 years from 1981, Absolut’s iconic campaign, a cultural touchstone in its day, featured two-word headlines. They invariably began with “Absolut,” illustrated by memorably on-point product visuals. For example, “Absolut Perfection” famously showed the bottle in an aura of divine light, topped by a halo.

Heinz’s refresh substitutes “Absolutely” for “Absolut.” And the images showcase pasta and tomatoes in eye-pleasing ways (they’re selling sauce, after all).

While somewhat of a stretch, we think this approach works as a fun tribute—and can also stand on its own. The stuff looks great and seems accessible even if folks don’t recall the Absolut original.

“The bestselling Absolut Book, which delves into the thinking and strategy behind the campaign, has provided creative inspiration throughout my professional career, long before we started working on this project,” says Wunderman ECD Paco Badia. “I would like to think that Richard W. Lewis, the author of the book [who guided the campaign for many years at TBWA] would approve the latest iteration.”

CREDITS

Brand: Kraft Heinz
Campaign: Heinz x Absolut Vodka

Client: Kraft Heinz New Ventures
New Ventures Managing Director: Caio Fontenele 
New Ventures Head of Platform: Alessandra Sega
New Ventures Senior Growth Manager: Riddhi Shah

Heinz Team: Alexandra Bayet, Isabel Oliver

Creative agency: Wunderman Thompson Spain
Chief Client Officer: Jose Maria Piera   
General Creative Direction: David Caballero 
Executive creative direction: Pipo Virgós, Paco Badia   
Creative Director: Gloria Hernández
Art direction: Sergi Boixadera, Carlos Galán
Copywriting: Albert Xifra
Production Director: Susanna Bergés   
Graphic Designer: Patricia Jiménez 
Account Director: Natàlia Gasulla   
Account Executive: Carla Pérez  

Stills and digital content: Pixfix

Photographer and video producer: Marcel Juan

Media Agency: Carat

Consumer PR Agency: Wonderland

March 2020: The dream brief

The world goes into lockdown due to the pandemic. Around the same time, a small agency in Singapore is asked to relaunch iconic brand Absolut in 23 markets. It doesn’t make any sense. But it’s 2020. The year when nothing much makes sense and anything’s possible.

April 2020: Let’s get cracking

As we start digging for that magical idea, our social feeds are filled with inspiring moments of human spirit finding a way, no matter what shit cards it’s dealt. 

When life gives you lemons, make a caipiroska (preferably with two shots of Absolut), as the saying goes. After six intense weeks of WFH, we have a new approved tagline, “It’s in our spirit,” and a platform that’s a rallying cry for Gen Z.

Now, we just need 23 markets to get on the same page, or at least, on the same Google slide. We prayed—Nikhil to his 10,000 Indian Gods and Gaston to his Peruvian God—and 20 Zoom calls later, we were ready to roll into production.

May 2020: The Plan

Our big launch film will use animation to bring four influencers and their obsessive virtuality to life. Four spectacular worlds in anime, 2-D and 3-D, that they want to escape from. In the end they’ll break out of their screens to take a breath of reality and share a moment of togetherness #IRL.

June 2020: Treatment time

Reading the treatments, we are already feeling the goosebumps. Then we get a glimpse of Todd and Kylie’s stellar vision and we know we have found our partners-in-crime. Psyop gets on board.

July 2020: Pre-production

We are in Singapore. Our client is in Stockholm. The production house is in L.A. 
Three time zones doesn’t hinder, but packs more hours into the day.

It starts with 7 a.m. animatic reviews with Psyop before they go to bed, followed by internal catchups through the day. At 5 p.m. SG time, we review with our clients and finally provide consolidated feedback to Psyop before we go to bed at midnight. All in a day’s work.

July 2020: Remote shoot in L.A., Taipei and London.

But … there’s always a but.

Our four influencers live in three different continents.

Covid restrictions mean we will have to shoot remotely in L.A., Taipei and London and make it look like they’re all in the same place for that moment of togetherness.

Enter green screens, body doubles and more Zoom calls. We’re winging it.

Not being present at the shoot leaves us all with a strange feeling. As if life is happening in 3-D and we’re all stuck looking at it from a 2-D screen.There’s only so much reality that virtuality can compensate for.

August 2020: We’ll fix it in post (not)

The post-production process is relatively bumpy. Simple things like offline edits, color grade, music and sound design take a whole lot more time when we’re working via Zoom calls. A lot gets lost in translation. 

September/October 2020: Magic in the making

Over the next six to eight weeks, the script goes from rough scribbles, to detailed shootboards, to full-blown animation renders that’s so delicious, you wanna eat it. Besides the main film, we have four backstories where the influencers share personal anecdotes. Everything needs to be ready for launch in November. 

Four different animation worlds and all the CGI in live action, coupled with a looming deadline, means Psyop has animators working magic in Buenos Aires, Ukraine, U.K., Italy, Germany, Thailand and the U.S. Despite the sleep deprivation, the potential of what we are all creating together keeps all 56 members of the production team on a high.

November 2020: It’s showtime

We couldn’t have imagined 2020 would turn out the way it did, and while we were working all year on this campaign, some geniuses were working on something bigger and far more significant: finding a vaccine for Covid.

Just as news of a possible cure got out, we were ready for launch. Call it serendipitous, but it couldn’t have been more timely.

The irony of it all

It’s a campaign urging people to step out of virtuality to experience togetherness #IRL. Created entirely over more than 600 Zoom calls #WFH. The irony is not lost on us.

But it was all possible because we had an amazing client, a resilient agency, and a never-say-never production house. We all had the same goal: to not be content with good enough, always pushing to get closer to greatness. The odds were stacked against us.

It’s amazing what we can do together when we put our minds to it.

It’s in our spirit.

Simon de Beauregard, director of engagement at Absolut, tells Muse that the partnership was a natural fit for the brand, given its long progressive history and also its more recent communications, including the “Planet Earth’s Favorite Vodka” platform launched last year. 

“We’ve been at the forefront of culture for a long time. Now we’re really pushing the idea of sustainable society and inclusivity,” he says. “We also have the new product. The intent was to launch it in a big way, and not just talk about the product but the attitude of the product.” 

In looking for an endorser, Lizzo fit in many different ways. 

“When we looked at the authenticity of the product—even when you look at the color, it’s not perfect because it’s real fruit—Lizzo appeared to be the ideal candidate because of who she is and how she talks about body positivity, joy of life, being spontaneous, everything she represents,” de Beauregard says. “On top of that, she has the song ‘Juice.’ That wasn’t the first reason we approached her, but it was the cherry on the cake, if you like.” 

O’Neill says he was drawn to music from the very beginning of the project. 

“Especially with ‘juice’ being the topic of many different songs with many different meanings,” he says. “It’s a word that’s taken on many meanings and a life of its own. Janelle Monáe has a song called ‘Juice.’ You hear it a lot.” 

O’Neill hadn’t heard of Lizzo when the campaign ideas began to get rolling late last year, but by May she was firmly on the radar. Still, Lizzo wanted to meet with the creative team and talk about the collaboration in person before agreeing to do it. 

“That said a lot to me about her integrity as an artist,” O’Neill says. “She wasn’t just doing it to do it. So we had an interesting meeting where she brought a lot of ideas. And we hit the ground running from there.”

Lizzo was also drawn to the brand’s history. 

“We talked about the many, many years of artist collaborations, starting with Warhol, and how the brand respected the artists as they are, whether it was Haring or Warhol or fashion designers,” O’Neill says. “She loved being part of that lineage. We told her, ‘We want you to be absolutely who you are. You’re not being the Absolut brand. You’re going to be your real, authentic, unfiltered self. That’s why people love you. That’s the artist you are.’ So that, combined with the authenticity of the product—and the fact that she behaves that way, pretty unfiltered and uncensored—it was a good partnership. We had a lot of fun with it.” 

Lizzo has been working with the same “glam squad” for seven years, and O’Neill brought them all in to work on the spots and photo shoots. 

Click the images to enlarge:

“Her hair and makeup, creative director, choreographer, the nail person—we pulled her team together. It’s just part of her artistry,” O’Neill says. “We didn’t want to just hire who we liked. So we brought her team along to complete the package, and she was very appreciative of that.” 

The monochromatic visuals were a way to bring the product into the visual look and feel, which O’Neill describes overall as “sort of a ’70s hippie disco vibe.” 

On set, Lizzo was the consummate performer. 

“You never know with talent if they’re going to bring it, and we had a lot of scenes to do,” O’Neill says. “We did that all in one day, and she didn’t give us a bad take. She loves what she’s doing and really likes to engage everyone around her and also be part of the fun.” 

Evidence of that—a video Lizzo posted on her own channels in which she’s seen twerking with an Absolut bottle. 

What tastes like strawberries and has apple bottoms? ??????????? NEW ABSOLUT JUICE BITCH!
This is the beginning of a ABSOLUTELY juicy friendship… #getjuicy @ABSOLUTvodka_US pic.twitter.com/LF9TBKTBi2

— |L I Z Z O| (@lizzo) July 17, 2019

“Hats of to Absolut for just embracing it,” says O’Neill. “She’s not the easiest sell at first glance when it comes to marketing, right? So I loved being part of that—the joy of working with her and her personality. She’s so comfortable with herself.” 

O’Neill also liked that the work embodies body positivity but isn’t explicitly about body positivity. He sees that as a step forward. 

“I presented the creative as, ‘It’s not a flavor, it’s an attitude,’ ” he says. “She embodies that, and it comes through loud and clear, even in the stills. It’s not about making [body positivity] the core narrative. It’s like, this is who she is, and you should be yourself, too. Be your authentic self. It’s not about, ‘Oh, aren’t we noble for putting this plus-size woman in our campaign? Aren’t we brave?’ We’ve done that already. To me, this was a sign that we’ve moved passed that.”