Following success in previous years with ABSOLUT FLAVOR OF THE TROPICS and ABSOLUT WATKINS, the world’s leading premium vodka brand now presents another exciting new flavor in the global duty free/travel retail market, designed exclusively for travelers.

ABSOLUT GUSTAFSON, flavored with sun-ripe cherries, freshly sliced strawberries and warm oriental notes of cardamon and chai, has been created in collaboration with Mats Gustafson, the world’s undisputed number one fashion artist and illustrator, who was born and raised in Sweden but has been a resident of New York for the past three decades and works with the entire globe as his arena. Gustafson’s bottle design features a dramatic green and bright pink horizon, painted with his characteristic, masterfully light-handed, super-sensitive and sensual brush strokes.

“The pink represents the berries, the green the cardamon and the more earthy qualities,” says Mats Gustafson. “The final artwork combines these two color blocks and, for me, they translate into the earth and the sky. The horizon is a great metaphor for traveling, for looking far and beyond.”

The ABSOLUT GUSTAFSON launch will be backed by a powerful 360-degree marketing campaign in all available media, including unique brand installations in key duty free/travel retail market arenas. The campaign will also feature an exclusive collaboration between star mixologist Andrés Leon Basile and master chef Marco Baudone of Le Rouge restaurant in Stockholm. A number of signature drinks and accompanying hors d’ouvres have been created, including ABSOLUT GUSTAFSON & GINGER, a mix of ABSOLUT GUSTAFSON and ginger ale.

“This launch is very exciting for us,” says Anders Olsson, Director of The Absolut Company Global Travel Retail. “It’s far more than just a one-off promotion. It continues our proud legacy of creative partnerships in the fields of art and fashion that started back in 1985, with the groundbreaking ABSOLUT WARHOL campaign. It is thus a key initiative in our overall brand image building strategy, which is based on constant re-invention. The fact that we are launching this new flavor exclusively for travelers is yet another tribute to the great strategic importance that our market has—and always has had—in the brand image marketing philosophy of ABSOLUT.”

THE ABSOLUT GUSTAFSON launch will be handled worldwide by Pernod Ricard Travel Retail.

Photo: A bottle of Absolut Gustafson