Absolut Cans Bottle Ads, Sees Sales Soar

Absolut is selling a lot more vodka now that it's dumped one of the world's best-known ad campaigns, Advertising Age reports. The Swedish brand and its arty ads featuring the iconic bottle had been a big hit since entering the US market in 1979, but sales were flat before the launch of the "Absolut World" campaign last year. Now global shipments have spiked 9%.

Absolut is also gobbling up more market share in the US, where it trails only Smirnoff in sales and has tussled with a host of upstart high-end competitors in recent years. The creative director of Absolut's ad agency said it was tough to make the change, which was initially viewed as heretical, "but consumers really needed to see something fresh." (More Absolut stories.)