Dan's Papers - October 26, 2007

Every year, millions of dollars are spent on clever and creative advertising campaigns that come out of the ingenious imaginations of Madison Avenue. All it takes is a witty saying or a great image that sticks in people's minds and makes them want to buy a product.

During the mid-1980s and through the 90s, there was an advertising campaign so powerful and global that it eventually became taught in schools as brilliance in advertising. Never before had anyone seen these kinds of ads, which had a continuous effect of unity and variety over Arlow's 10-year era and an almost cult-like following.

This ad campaign was for Absolut Vodka, and the creative director of the campaign from 1984 to 1994 was a man named Arnie Arlow, who now lives in Amagansett. As creative director of TBWA Advertising Agency in Manhattan, Arlow had a staff of artists and writers who worked on different teams to come up with the ideas that spawned these ads, all focused around a vodka bottle that took up almost a full page.

Absolut Vodka is based in Sweden, and at the time that it came out, vodka was not a popular beverage in America. If people were drinking vodka, they were drinking Stolichnaya, which was the first imported vodka from Russia.

"Stoli was the most popular vodka here during the mid-1980s, and we had to find out if Swedish vodka could make it," Arlow recalled. "Sweden was known for being clean, cold and modern, with beautiful people and beautiful stainless steel cutlery."

When Arlow became Executive Vice President/Creative Director of TBWA, he took on some illustrious accounts in addition to Absolut Vodka, including Acura Autos, Air France, Anheuser Busch, Carlsberg Beer, Eagle Snacks, Bombay Brands, Grand Marnier Liqueur, Carvel, Chock Full O' Nuts Coffee, Club Med, GQ and Gourmet Magazines, Evian, Laughing Cow Cheese, Gold Star Electronics, HIP Insurance, Ladies Home Journal, New York Mets, Nivea, People's Bank, Phillip Morris, Woolite and NEET, Totts Champagne, UNICEF and Western Union.

"It was exciting and incredible. You're dealing not only with the people in the agency, but with artists, photographers and TV producers in the world of commercial art, which is very collaborative," said Arlow. "We went on world trips, did TV commercials and ate great lunches all over New York City." But he added, "Advertising is only as good as the client allows, and if I had visionary clients I could do visionary ads. Of all my clients, Absolut was the most visionary. The ultimate client was the Swedish government, who owned the brand. It was a socialist country, which had control of the liquor brands, and I went to Sweden often to sell the government on the ads we were creating."

He frequently traveled with Michel Roux, the marketing genius who was President of Carillon Importers, the company that imported Absolut Vodka to America. Arlow said the first ad his agency created was to have the vodka bottle filling up the page, with a halo over the top and the words, "Absolut Purity" on the bottom.

"This ad, designed by South African Art Director Geoff Hayes, created a pattern for the look of all the ads to follow," said Arlow. "All the ads had a big bottle, with the words, "Absolut" (something). For example, there were two full-page ads of the bottle back to back, and on the second page, it said, "Absolut Déja Vu." Another ad showed the big bottle with cobwebs all over it, and the words, "Absolut Impossibility," meaning that it would be impossible for this vodka to sit still that long. Another ad, "Absolut Larceny," showed no bottle, and only a broken chain.

"These ads attracted an extremely sophisticated audience who came to expect to figure them out, in a clever way," said Arlow." We also did a whole series of New York and other city ads, like taking an aerial view of Central Park and making it into the shape of an "Absolut" bottle. "For "Absolut San Francisco, you can't see the bottle through the fog, you just see the cap." For "Absolut Miami," they hired an architect to design an art deco building in the shape of the bottle and for "Absolut Washington, D.C.," they wrapped the bottle in red tape.

"This campaign grew in intensity and excitement, and soon became a multi-million dollar venture. Absolut Vodka became the Number One selling vodka in America," said Arlow. "By putting this vodka in people's cities, they felt more of an affinity with this product, like we were marketing it to them personally."

He said his creative team even became "daring," creating edgy ads like "Absolute Vail," showing a bottle in a cast with writing all over it, and "Absolut Bastille," showing a bottle with its neck chopped off.

"We created several amazing series over a 10-year campaign, including another series of famous artists, who painted "Absolut" bottles," said Arlow. Andy Warhol painted the first bottle for an ad that read, "Absolute Warhol." He was followed by artists Ed Ruscha, Ken Scharf, Robert Indiana, Al Hirschfeld, Keith Haring, Donald Sultan and even Kurt Vonnegut in the mid-90s.

"We had about a hundred famous artists painting our bottles," said Arlow. "No one had ever seen these kinds of ads before." His agency continued to come out with flavored vodkas, from Citron to vanilla.

Growing up in Brooklyn during the 1930s and 40s, Arlow's artistic talent emerged at an early age, when he spent hours copying comic book covers. "I loved and escaped into art, and in public school I was one of the class artists, drawing on the blackboards," he recalled. He attended and graduated from the prestigious High School of Music and Art in New York City, commuting an hour and a half each way by train. In his senior year at Cooper Union Art School, he won a Fulbright Scholarship to paint in Paris, where he had several shows of his work, and then he went on to paint in Spain on another scholarship.

"This was the real opening up of my life," he explained. "When I came back to New York, I tried to get my paintings into the 57th Street galleries, but they said to come back when I was more experienced. I had to make a decision between my love of art and my love of security and wanting to have a family to support. So I went into advertising because I wanted to have what I lacked growing up, with my father working seven days in the garment district just to get by."

Today, after working his way up through numerous ad agencies to become partner and creative director, Arlow has come full circle ,back to his love of painting after retiring in 1998 from Margeotes Fertitta & Partners, where he was responsible for the Stolichnaya and Bombay Sapphire Gin accounts.

He is currently exhibiting his large abstract impressionistic paintings at the Sylvester at Home store and gallery in Amagansett Square until October 30. Arlow's memories, sights and feelings from his favorite cities worldwide are depicted in paintings he created right here on the East End in his Amagansett barn that he shares with his painter wife Susan Gray Larsson.