The Weightless Society

Early in 1978, Swedish advertising executive Gunnar Broman led a small delegation of his countrymen to New York with a commission from his country's Liquor Monopoly to promote the import of Swedish vodka into the United States market. At their first marketing meeting, Broman, whose previous claim to fame was a hugely popular porridge promotion, faced three challenges: not only did the vodka lack a name and a package, but the product itself did not yet exist. From that inauspicious beginning, Hamilton spins out a rollicking tale in which a zany cast of government bureaucrats, marketing mavens and profit-seeking distributors collided with numerous business nostrums and yet managed to create a brand that became the leading imported vodka in the United States by 1985. Hamilton, a leading Swedish journalist and television personality, revels in the absolute lunacy of a vodka that was first concocted in 1978 and distilled at a newly built plant in Arstadal outside Stockholm being represented as a liquor made in the ancient distillery town of Ahus according to a tradition dating back 400 years. Though Hamilton may direct his savage wit at the alchemical wizardry of the advertising industry, the very real benefits of savvy positioning and eye-catching media campaigns in the selling of Absolut vodka also come through loud and clear in this highly entertaining business-behind-the-business report. (Dec. 1)