Absolut wants to know where you were looking during its naked vodka advert

Vodka label Absolut has tweaked its provocative “Nothing to Hide” ad campaign to find out where viewers’ eyes are drawn to.

The advert, which sees host Gunnar deliver the drinks maker’s mission statement and commitment to transparent in the nude, has now been altered to incorporate facial recognition technology which assesses whether a user is more conservative or liberal.

Running with the tagline: ‘The vodka with nothing to hide’, the short film features Absolut staff in the nude in a variety of settings related to its production, including a winter wheat field and the bottling line at the distillery in Åhus in southern Sweden.

Havas Media, Pernod Ricard’s appointed UK marketing partner, told The Drum the update to the video is a lighthearted attempt to further the campaign’s value to consumers, allowing them to assess whether they are more “Conservative like the Brits, or open-minded like the Swedes.”

As part of an on-going customer engagement strategy for Absolut Vodka, the Havas Village has created an interesting spin on BBH’s current Nothing To Hide campaign.

“We have taken the campaign film, which shows real Absolut staff explaining the vodka-making process while completely naked, and applied facial recognition technology so that users can test how sensitive they are to nudity. Conservative like the Brits, or open-minded like the Swedes!

“The tongue in cheek element of the campaign highlights a core value for Absolut: their high-quality and sustainable approach to making vodka, which is totally transparent. Viewers are asked to opt in to the facial recognition aspect of the activity, which uses their computer’s camera to film their reaction to the video as it plays.”

While the video is intended as a bit of fun, it also highlights Absolut’s CO2 neutral distillation process and the brand’s sustainable ethos. It ends with the staff dancing in the buff to the sounds of a brass band.

Chief executive Alexandre Ricard also stripped off for the campaign, which features 28 real Absolut employees.

Explaining his decision to bare all, Ricard told the Financial Times: “I spend a lot of my time as I travel saying that we need creativity and audacity. Somebody said: ‘Walk the walk’. If you want to engage with consumers, you have to be creative and audacious.”