In An ABSOLUT™ World

Why shouldn't a producer of trendy alcoholic beverages be keen to make the world a better place? Why shouldn't a strong and renowned brand like ABSOLUT evoke an utopia of a world freed from any label to boost the own one? Actually I don't want to discuss those strange social approaches of companies and their branding strategies today. Or the often curious pairings of products and values. Or aspects like credibility, authenticity.

But I want to mention one of the latest projects done by the Swiss design collective nerves as I hold them and their work in high regard. For ABSOLUT in Switzerland they developed and designed the website nolabels.ch which gives visitors the chance to join the No Labels Task Force to fight against stereotyped thinking. Of course it's the idea to proclaim this action via as many social network platforms as possible–just to find more combatants for this probably holy mission.

To propagate the annulment of basic phenomena of constructing identities in society–which are also the base for the establishment of brands in the end–doesn't go without a certain sense of irony. Just like the website's claim

In an ABSOLUT world there are no labels

which rejects the idea of labels and in the same breath labels the world as a whole.

As the artistic quality is at the usually high level of a nerves project, I personally miss a thread that keeps the several and seemingly a bit fragmentary parts of the website together–in form and content. Nevertheless I warmly recommend to have a look at some of collective's other projects at their website. You'll quickly realize that attitudes flower out more impressively beyond the boundaries often set by ambitious marketing strategists.