Why Absolut's 'bottle' print ad is the greatest of all time

In today's digital landscape, print advertising is often declared defunct. But rumours of the format's death have been greatly exaggerated. Some of today's most iconic ads show no sign of the dreaded 'pivot to video' – and perhaps the most iconic campaign of all is also the longest running.

Absolut Vodka has produced over 2,000 variations of its 'bottle' ad since 1980, in the perfect advertising encapsulation of the phrase, 'If it ain't broke...' And through sheer repetition, it managed to turn what could have been a one-hit wonder into one of the best print ad campaigns ever.

Ever since 1980's 'Absolut Perfection' ad, the Vodka brand has been producing variations of an ad with deceptively simple ingredients: they feature a bottle (or at least the semblance of one), and the word 'Absolut'. But it turns out a bottle can be interpreted in seemingly countless weird and wonderful ways. Over at the Absolut website, you can view every version of the ad ever made.

While we have a soft spot for 2024's new Andy Warhol version of the ad based on a long-lost painting by the man himself (mainly because we went to see the real thing in Stockholm last year), there are so many ingenious examples of the ad, including city-based designs for London and New York (above).

Deb Dasgupta, Global VP of Marketing for Absolut, told Creative Bloq she thinks it's the bottle itself that makes the brand's ads unique. "I think it's so pure, it's so simple, which also makes it a canvas for creativity and imagination, and also because the purity and transparency of the liquid in it. We've done so many limited editions and powerful collaborations using the bottle. Now there are so many bringing back heritage assets. But for us, it's been there all along – we never got rid of it."