COSTA IMC Blog

The shift in how consumers get their music has forced the entire music industry to find other ways to make money. This has led to the rise of co-branding and celebrity endorsements. Some endorsements make more sense than others, but here’s a new example of a partnership that works well.

Shock rocker Marilyn Manson has done his best to keep taboo intertwined with his lifestyle and stage show. Now, his endorsement of absinthe, a controversial adult beverage a.k.a. “the green fairy,” is available for consumption. Absinthe was outlawed in the U.S. for retail due to its hallucinogenic effects. Minds of artist and authors like Ernest Hemingway, Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, Charles Baudelaire, Paul Gauguin, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and Vincent van Gogh have been bent while consuming absinthe– some even citing the concoction as “inspirational.” In recent years, absinthe makers have produced a beverage with similar qualities, but without the hallucinogenic effects. The FDA relaxed the ban, and the drink is now commercially available across the nation.

Marketing genius brought absinthe and Marilyn Manson together. Both possess reputations known to be mind-altering, controversial, and shocking. A source reports Manson to be an avid connoisseur of absinthe. Manson is said to have had a high involvement in the production of Mansinthe, his absinthe label.

Do you think the marriage of Marilyn Manson and absinthe to form Mansinthe is a perfect match? Would you be more or less inclined to try absinthe after Manson’s endorsement? Are you more likely to try Mansinthe specifically? What other product and musician pairings could make good matches?

For more information about Mansinthe, check out these sites:
Mansinthe Official Site
Denmark Product page

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 10:13 am and is filed under Branding, Marketing, Trends, publicity. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.