Close Look Shows Kanye West Ad Is for Absolut

In music videos, rapper Kanye West has rocketed across canyons and withstood multiple beatings while bound and gagged in a car. Now, he's promising something even more outrageous: an opportunity for everyday people to be exactly like him.

Advertisements on bus stops, subways, and Web sites offer pills that can transform anyone into Mr. West. Sound too ... something ... to be true? Actually, it is: The ad campaign is for Absolut.

Mr. West's tongue-in-cheek appearance marks the second collaboration with the vodka company, which is sponsoring his "Glow in the Dark" tour this summer.

In a video at the Web site bekanyenow.com, which is designed to resemble an infomercial, Mr. West sells tablets called "Be Kanye" that promise to transform the taker into "Kanye" for a four-hour duration. "How many times have you told yourself, 'I feel famous and powerful on the inside, but nobody sees it that way on the outside?'" he asks.

The print advertisements brag that the tablets can "unleash the SUPERSTAR within," and a television spot features a confused clubgoer watching as a man pops a pill and transforms into "Kanye" as the actual Mr. West exits a bathroom stall.

Produced by TBWA/Chiat/Day, the ads promote the vodka brand subtly, with the inclusion of the phrase "In an Absolut world." In addition to Mr. West, gossip blogger Perez Hilton and comedian and actor Eddie Izzard are participating in the campaign.

Robert Passikoff, the president of Brand Keys, a brand and customer loyalty consulting firm, said the advertisements and the Web site smartly capitalize on Mr. West's star power.

"What you are really doing is borrowing equity from the people who are doing the ads," he said. "You're not just putting an ad out and relying on the strength of the Absolut brand in and of itself and on its own."

The campaign kicked off online first, which allowed Absolut to reach a broader audience, according to the executive editor of Brandweek, Barry Janoff.

"A growing number of the brand's consumers spend more time online and using new media, so these types of efforts have more and longer-lasting impacts than TV spots," he said.

The online video uses the Absolut label only once, purposely downplaying the logo, a spokeswoman for Absolut, Sarah Bessette, said. "We wanted our audience to experience it themselves versus our telling them what it is," she said.

Consumers can log onto the spirit maker's Web site and share their ideas about Absolut, Ms. Bessette added. "A lot of our consumers live on the Web, so we needed a digital component as well," she said.

Absolut was long known for relying on a print campaign that has integrated pop cultural touchstones with images of its bottle. It shelved that 25-year campaign two years ago in the midst of slowing growth and tighter competition.