Get Rid of Your Labels About Sexual Minorities

by Michael Jones · 2009-08-17 06:32:00 UTC
Topics:

Absolut

Someone is challenging you to discard your labels and your prejudices about sexual minorities.  That someone is Absolut Vodka, and they're putting their marketing campaign where their mouth is, by creating a labelless bottle.  The point?  To plug equality by saying that no matter what's on the outside of the package, it's what's on the inside that matters.  And that kind of relates to people, too.

Absolut has been at the forefront of LGBT advertising for years, winning plenty of awards from organizations like the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) along the way.  But this campaign, similar to the "Think Before You Speak" campaign from the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network, takes on the power of language and words to label, and how those labels create trouble when it comes to discrimination, prejudice and fear-mongering.

"For the first time we dare to face the world completely naked. We launch a bottle with no label and no logo, to manifest the idea that no matter what’s on the outside, it’s the inside that really matters. We do it in support of the people who spend their entire lives, stamped with labels by other people," said Absolut PR Manager Kristina Hagbard.

Even sleeker than a bottle with no label?  Absolut has launched a blog to talk about the no label campaign, rife with information (and a heaping dose of sarcastic snark) directed toward prejudice within and toward the LGBT community.

Companies market to LGBT folks all of the time.  But companies rarely immerse their product in the thick of the LGBT world to make a broader point about equality.  This is one advertising campaign whose central message is one everyone can buy into, whether they drink alcohol or not: In an absolute world, there are no labels.


Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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