I Wish I’d Done That: Trent Peppercorn, Head of Growth & Creative Services, MBCS

Since the early 1980s, Absolut has had a long-standing affinity with, and relationship to, equality – particularly when it comes to LGBTQI Aussies. On February 19, 2019, Absolut announced the launch of Absolut Love: a celebration of the historic YES vote for Australian marriage equality.

To bring Absolut Love to life in an authentic way, the campaign saw Absolut create iconic posters – rendering the bottle absent, and instead humanising the impact of the vote by sharing the names of 282 LGBTQIA+ Aussies who now had the freedom and right to tie the knot. Absolut then took the campaign a step further from its key art. It partnered with celebrated Australian visual artist, Scott Marsh, who painted loved-up couples at sites around Sydney. Marsh’s street art gave local Aussies a chance to share and star in their own “happily ever after” moment, and encouraged passers-by to support equality through publicising these stories. These images created a great opportunity for the LGBTQIA+ community to be represented in public spaces and allowed queer people to share their pride in these special moments.