Doing Things Differently Leads To Something Exceptional
August 5, 2009 // Art + Commercial + Video

Absolut Vodka has teamed up with director Rupert Sanders to create a series of advertisements that absolutely (ugh) make me smile. The ad features a number of different locales, the forest, city, snow and so on, and in each place there’s a different word, which eventually creates the phrase, “Doing Things Differently Leads To Something Exceptional.” The overall effect is pretty stunning, I mean the creative direction behind it is really top notch.

I think my favorite scene is with the bottles in the forest. They were somehow able to raise and lower the height of the bottles, so when you see it at first they look about waist high. But then later you can see them from below, spelling the word ‘Things.’ Over 2,000 bottles were used to create the effect.

I’ve put behind the scene videos for each of the words under the cut, so don’t forget to take a peek at those as well. It’s really rad being able to see how they created each of these shots.

Bobby

  1. They look a lot like what Stefan Sagmeister did in Things I have learned in my life so far. Good stuff.

    Comment by Jose Espinoza — August 5, 2009 #

  2. and with that song you can’t go wrong either

    Comment by vic — August 5, 2009 #

  3. [...] Doing Things Differently Leads to Something Exceptional. “A group of artists comes together in locations around the world to create art pieces that spell out the philosophy of Absolut Vodka.” My favorite is the forest full of bottles. The most amazing part of this commercial is that it’s all real – no CGI here – just amazing tallent. You can check out the behind the scenes videos over on Kitsune Noir. [...]

    Pingback by Absolutely Beautiful « AUCOTI — August 5, 2009 #

  4. mmm those bottles look gorgeous!

    Comment by Lightning Heart — August 6, 2009 #

  5. Oh wow I didn’t know there were videos of the project in the making. Good stuff.

    Comment by nerdski — August 6, 2009 #

  6. Not to be all negs, but there is little original about this ad, sonically, visually, or conceptually. It’s pretty though.

    Comment by Chris — August 7, 2009 #

  7. Best commercial I have seen in a while. It’s too bad in the end this is about drinking because it makes me want to go save the world or something.

    Comment by Ryan — August 7, 2009 #

  8. Sure… cool… but not as good as Stefan Sagmeister’s “Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far.”

    I really don’t get how they had the balls to say “Doing Things Differently Leads To Something Exceptional” when they didn’t do ANYTHING differently… They just stole an idea for this video…

    I give it a thumbs WAY down… Not an original concept, bad and not new or different music, poor video editing and the voice over sounds like they were REALLY trying for the Apple voice over. Lame all around… well i guess the bottles in the forest were kinda nice… but still lame…

    Comment by Brian Cassidy — August 7, 2009 #

  9. Isn’t that a Galaxie 500 cover? Very gorgeous video.

    Comment by Kate — August 8, 2009 #

  10. Oh hold on it’s a cover of a New Order song that Galaxie 500 covered too… Love that song.

    Comment by Kate — August 8, 2009 #

  11. @Brian – I didn’t delete your comment, I just didn’t have a chance to approve it yet. I think you make a valid argument, one which Cliff over on Fast Company also made:

    http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/cliff-kuang/design-innovation/absolut-doh

    I think it’s definitely within reason that they borrowed elements from Sagmeister, I was fully aware of Things I Have Learned In My Life So Far before posting this. What they did differently though was put motion to it all, showed the process, and all of those pieces made it something different.

    I also have a hard time believing that Stefan Sagmeister was the first one to ever write words out of objects, this doesn’t seem like a revolutionary idea. But it definitely does seem more ironic that they titled it Doing Things Differently Leads To Something Exceptional, it’s kind of like shooting yourself in the foot.

    That all being said, I think what they did was extremely detailed, well-crafted, and over all well done. I’m sure it took a ton of planning and brainstorming to come up with something of such quality. They didn’t just tie caution tape to a fence in New York. If anything they stole the idea and made it entirely better, in my opinion.

    I wonder what Stefan Sagmeister would think?

    Comment by Bobby — August 8, 2009 #

  12. Bobby, I can see where you are coming from. I definitely agree that anyone has the right to take an idea like Sagmeister’s and build from it like they did for this video. After all he doesn’t have a copyright on making text out of objects.

    I guess most of my negative feeling stem from the fact that there is something well known in the past (Sagmeister’s work) to compare this to and I don’t think it “respected” its predecessor in its attempt to improve. That statement might be a bit extreme or even silly, but let me explain.

    After having stepped away for a bit and looked at it again, I do like what they are trying to do with the video, but I don’t think they went far enough to not step on the toes of Stefan. I think because (like you said) they added motion they should have REALLY added motion. The video shots on the finished words could work just as well as a print piece. I would have liked to see more kinetic versions or words rather than stills shot with a video camera mixed with the building process in between. Maybe doing something that borrows ideas from both Sameister and Honda’s famous commercial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g2VCfOC69jc

    I can’t really say much more that was’t already said better than I could by Cliff at Fast Company. I guess my only last statement would be that there is a lot more charm in the handmade nature of Sagmiester’s than Abslut’s polished, extremely detailed, and commercial quality. But that’s only my opinion.

    I also wonder what Stefan Sagmeister would think?

    P.S. I apologize for my second post. I realized that the first was waiting for approval right after I posted it.

    Comment by Brian Cassidy — August 9, 2009 #

  13. Awesome commercial, but i agree with everyone else on their Sagmeister comments, i also wonder what he thinks. lol.

    Comment by Yves Laroque — August 10, 2009 #

  14. i just saw this commercial for the first time today and i immediately googled it because i got really excited that it would be Sagmeister’s work because it was so familiar. now that i know it’s not.. im slightly disappointed. i know a lot of what design is, is borrowing from different inspirations but i think this was a bit too far. the copy even sounds like it could be a direct quote right out of ‘things i have learned in my life so far.’

    Comment by Megan Ganley — August 20, 2009 #

  15. Can anyone tell me the title of the music track?

    Comment by J. Pope — September 15, 2009 #

  16. When I first saw it I was inmediately sure it was Sagmeister’s. I had no doubt about it. I was rather surprised to learn it wasn’t.

    Crafting words individually out of ordinary objects in order to construct a sentence may not be copyrighted, you’re right. But come on. The concept is strongly associated with the man that strongly exploited it and strongly made it his own by way of a strongly established aesthethic. It seems to me that the “not copy-righted” argument might as well had come off a lawyer’s mouth, cringing in technicisms when it’s obvious that the idea, from concept down to execution isn’t original.

    It’s hard to tell where the coincidences stop and the plagiarism starts, for we are not familiar with the design process behind it, and we are all making assumptions. But really, come on.

    I’m quoting type designer Nick Shinn here, just becuase he is so good with words:

    “However, when a creative comes up with something that bears a strong resemblance to well-known currently fashionable/popular work, even if there is no plagiarism involved, it’s best to kill that baby, for the sake of reputation.”

    Quoted from typophile: http://typophile.com/node/60721

    Two thumbs down, also. Just my two cents.

    Comment by Julio — October 17, 2009 #