Analysis Of Absolut Vodka Campaign

In its “In an ABSOLUT world” campaign, Absolut Vodka uses ingenious concepts to comment on timeless topics and ideas with a desire to spark discussion and conversation. The campaign features numerous optimistic and bold scenes from a world where everything is as ideal as Absolut apparently is. Image C was recently placed in Time Magazine. This advertisement challenges the heteronormative gender roles in American society by emasculating the man in the relationship. Gender roles will be analyzed as the traditional and socially appropriate behaviors of men and women.

Using the cultural dimension of production, Absolut Vodka, the producer of this advertisement, definitely focuses on its specific target audience by keeping women in mind since pregnancy

In many cases today, women can still be considered objects in advertising but Image C disrupts the status quo of gender roles. Usually, men are pictured as masculine, normative and in control. But in this case, he is holding his back, unhappy, stressed and pregnant. The man is show as bearing the typical female burdens of pregnancy. The dog next to the man seems to emasculate him further. Since it is pictured next to the man, the viewer assumes it is his own unmanly dog. It seems as though the producers wanted to value matriarchy and displace ideas of patriarchy for the audience.

The way that this advertisement defined an ideal feminine world completely alters and challenges the typical patriarchal ideologies shown in advertisements. Absolut also uses ‘the gaze’ as a way to capitalize on the feminine perspective of this advertisement. The body of the wife in this relationship conforms to the set of normative standards about beauty. The ideal white, middle-class, thin, conventionally beautiful woman is pictured on the right side of the image, holding a martini. The ad actually condemns the reproduction of the idea that women are passive and men are active, even though femininity was still constructed as to-be-looked-at-ness for the woman. Scholars of women’s and gender studies have always recognized reproductive practices as a way to manage social roles by sexualizing and gendering individuals.

‘Othering’ describes the differentiation of individuals from a norm. It extends beyond identities to social practices and use of space. Absolut challenges the norm of a pregnant woman being the ‘other’ in comparison to the dominant, strong and powerful man. Not only is this man pregnant, but he also appears less “put together” than the female pictured in the advertisement. With an unshaven face and bags under his eyes, he appears to be ready to go to sleep. His hair is messy, his clothes don’t match, he is not physically fit and he is missing a button on his sweater. The man is posed in such a way where he is holding his back in a typical pose of a pregnant woman. In this example, the man is ‘othered’ in a humorous way to make a point in our heteronormative