Deconstructing an alcohol ad: Svedka Vodka

           

I found this advertisement on the website The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, part of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in their Marketing Gallery. This website posts alcohol advertising to “to stimulate discussion, comment, criticism, and public concern about alcohol marketing and youth”

Aesthetics

The product advertised is vodka, specifically Svedka Vodka. The product is given a human/robot persona because the robot in the ad has the name of the vodka on its leg. The product is placed in the foreground and is very noticeable being a white bottle against a black background.

The name of the product Svedka Vodka is mentioned 4 times. On the bottle, the leg of the robot, at the top of the ad where there is a "Like on Facebook" posting and along the side of the ad in fine print.

It would seem that the slogan is “r.u.bot or not?” and Voted #1 of 2033", each of which are mentioned once. I am not sure that I have heard this before. I seem to recall hearing it but I can’t be sure. I really haven’t seen many alcohol ads lately and the robot on this ad is pretty distinctive so I think I would have remembered it. I don’t remember seeing this robot before.

The robot is female with sexuality portrayed as a young woman. Although a machine, the sexuality of the robot is pronounced by robot’s the large breasts and the stiletto shoes the robot is wearing. The text of the ad reads “The ultimate party machine” the implication being that the robot is the party machine which is sexual in a very offensive way. It suggests that drinking alcohol would lead to sexual behavior.

The tone is sarcastic in a demeaning way towards women.

The ad appears to have been created with a computer graphic program but the point of view is from the floor in front of the robot. The effect is to view the robot so you see the lower half of the body more predominately.

The lighting highlights the foreground where the robot and the vodka bottle are. The background is mostly black which makes the robot and the bottle stand out. The floor and ceiling have enlarged computer numbers on them in neon red, violet and blue violet. This color scheme gives a futuristic science fiction look to the ad.

Target audience

The target audience is the young adult, people who go out to bars, probably male who might get their dates drunk. It is men who are not interested in relationships or emotions. 

This ad assumes that people drink and have sex. It also suggests the idea of people who do not know each other, meeting and having one night stands.

The product is vodka. I do not find the ad appealing because it implies that if a woman gets drunk enough she will be a party machine in a sexual context. Using the robot to portray her implies that this person does not have any emotions and there is also an implication that she would be used as a sexual tool which could imply sexual coercion or rape after being plied with alcohol. There is also an implication of gang rape by using the phrase,”The ultimate party machine.”

Do we really want this?

 I don’t know what males who this ad would appeal to would want. I think this is for the 21-35 population. I know that there are some males who have an attitude about sex and drinking. I don’t know what these people are like. I find this ad really creepy-I think it would appeal to a person or crowd of males who had problems with empathy. It reinforces the lack of empathy in a manipulative way. It implies that plying a woman with alcohol to have sex with her is fine. It also implies that objectifying a woman as a sexual robot is what she wants.  

What did I learn from this process?

Most of the time I ignore ads unless they are eye catching or feature something that I find either very appealing or very unappealing. In the case of this ad I decided to deconstruct it because it had elements that some might find appealing such as the use of the robot and elements that were very unappealing the use of the robot. After I wrote most of this paper, I looked up this ad to find out it was part of a larger advertising campaign. I learned that this robot was the central figure in a marketing campaign run by Svedka Vodka which also used the slogan “Voted #1of 2033”. When I was researching this ad campaign, which was retired in 2013, I read a review of it written by a male. He said that he found the ad campaign creepy because it objectified women as robots which is how I felt. Although I really do not drink very much, after reviewing this ad I really do not want to try Svedka Vodka.