Be Kanye. Drink Absolut.

Abosult Vodka and Kanye West announced a collaboration in February:

“Their creative ventures begin with sponsorship of the Glow in the Dark Tour 2008 Ignited By ABSOLUT 100, and will continue as West works with the brand to bring his signature style into nightlife arenas and marketing campaigns in a daring and provocative fashion.”

It’s the second viral video campaign in recent months from Absolut using pop culture icons in retro-absurd awesomeness. The first featured two “undeniably insane, eye-popping videos that come exclusively from the minds of some of today’s most entertaining, hyper-creative, and especially bizarre minds of progressive comedy,” Zach Galifianakis, Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim.

For the Be Kanye ad, Kanye picks up where they left off, concocting an entertaining mix derived from those Bacardi and Cola ads, Ron Popeil, and Kanye West. But while Galifianakis and co. enlisted over-sized martini glasses to show how much they enjoyed Absolut, alcohol is conspicuously absent from Kanye’s video.

It’s a trade off from a marketing perspective. Clearly display the brand and get viewers to immediately associate it with the content, or make it more nuanced and hopefully have engaged viewers say, “WTF is this for?” I dig the subtlety.

One more thing: Taking a tip from Jon Udell, can we get a name for this intentional amateury aesthetic? Gabe calls it, “fake commercials that look like they were badly produced for a local cable market,” but that’s way too long, and what I’m considering would encompass commercials, icons, advertisements, flyers, everything.