A traditional Chinese tale about a monkey king that can transform himself in 72 different ways to achieve enlightenment while overcoming obstacles serves as the inspiration for a new Chinese art competition, 72 Transformations.
The contest, aiming to discover the “next big” contemporary Chinese artist runs through October 15th and is sponsored by Absolut Vodka.
Hand-made design by Shanghai emerging artist
Contest winners will see their artwork on Absolut Vodka bottles in China. You may have already witnessed similar U.S. campaigns, where artists were challenged to design a new look for the well-known vodka brand, but now the spotlight is on China!
In 2003, Florida based artist Romero Britto designed 850,000 bottles for Absolut vodka 25th Anniversary which quickly became an iconic product that changed the marketing philosophy of many global brands. Britto is not the first artist to have worked with Absolut vodka, other famous artists such as Andy Warhol and Keith Haring also had a hand in transforming the blank bottle design.
Absolut Heart by Romero Britto
Absolut decided to completely change the old, simply designed bottle because, “Our customers are all unique – so we wanted to give them each a one-of-a-kind bottle as individual as they are,” explains Jonas Tahlin, Vice President Global Marketing at The Absolut Company.
With this type of campaign, art has broken the mold and made it’s way from the wall to the bottle in order to reach a broader audience. This gives more opportunities to artists and also inspires art fans.
Shanghai artist Lu Xinjian drawing on Absolut bottle using black markers
-Yekaterina Sahakyan
