Monday Funday: Absolut’ly starkers

Free spirits

The Swedes have always been cool. ­From ABBA to Henrik Larsson – to offering you plate after plate of meatballs while shopping for furniture – there is something particularly cool about the Norwegian’s neighbours.

That cool, carefree Scandinavian attitude fuels vodka brand Absolut’s spoof staff video. Filmed in the Swedish town Ahus – IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR STREET — we are introduced to real life employees who talk us through the distillery process, while wearing….Absolut-ly nothing.

It’s a chuckle-filled couple of minutes, which nicely ties in with Absolut’s tagline: “The Vodka with Nothing to Hide”.

Perhaps the funniest thing about the campaign is the press release put out by the company a few days later. Legal must have caught wind of someone having a laugh, releasing a statement reassuring us all that the ad was only a bit of fun and “employees are normally fully clothed”. Cheers guys.

Alexa….Alexa?

Poor old Alexa, all those questions and she never gets a day off… or does she? In this 90-second clip from Amazon the artificial platform loses its voice, and has to call on some ill-equipped celebs to fill in.

We go from Silence of the Lambs to shouting about lamb chops as Anthony Hopkins and Gordon Ramsey step in to cover her shift. Next thing you know Alexa is hurling abuse in the kitchen, and threatening the spouses of Amazon’s loyal customers. 

Ha-ha-harchives

They don't come much more vintage than this now do they? A classic piece of film history from way back in 1964. It lacks the brash, punchy humour of modern viral marketing vids, but maybe it's richer for that. There's probably never been a better example of quiet, understated humour since.