W for Vodka
W + K Amsterdam is behind a black & white online project to promote Polish vodka brand Wodka Wyborowa.
The site aims at launching a “W movement” claiming there is no “v” in the vodka distilled by Wyborowa. The original vodka comes from Poland, and it’s spelled with the “W”.
The experience it s quite gloomy (it reminds me of Young Frankestein…), is based on a good concept however, according to me, it lacks in execution. There are some things that are great and worth taking note, like the navigation clicking on the newspaper and the voice over to explain the menu items, but the content s extremely heavy to load and this ends up disorienting the user, as you don’t understand whether something is going to happen or not.
Overall, the experience results rather confusing, I like concepts that are not obvious, but in this case cryptic content is often to cryptic…
Also, what I didn’t like it’s the fact that they (the agency) used exactly the same menu created a few weeks ago for the Can you Fifa 08 website (see below).
Wodka:
Fifa:
Very creative, but I prefer luxury lifestyle advertising when it comes to alcohol.
The concept of promoting “W” is cool, especially for me as a Polish person. The production is too pesimistic. I prefer “Smirnoff Raw Tea” viral as a better way to promote W(V)odka.
A spelling error in the first jpeg. Ugh. So slack, especially from W+K, a well-respected agency. I checked the site, it’s definitely there.
Dear W+K: It’s *today’s newspaper*. Now, where do I send my invoice for proofreading?
What an interesting point about the similarities between the Wodka and the Fifa ads.
While creatives rave about what “inspires” them, it seems that often times we are merely “inspiring” one another to create replicates of artwork already produced.
Where do we draw the line between “inspiration” and “duplication” in advertising? How much ?originality? actually exists anymore?
Great observation!
Great online campaign indeed, I borrowed it for my blog (with credits to your find, of course).
However, let me just bring to your attention that the menu is not copied nor borrowed from Fifa 08, who themselves really invented nothing.
This sort of typography arrangement is directly inspired of 1930′s Bauhaus movement, which ran largely in Poland. And if there’s anything, it is way better implemented than the real poor type application of the Fifa menu.
You can’t copy a design movement, you only borrow from it, and if you do so - better do it in respect to its quality.