Latest news with #Smirnoff
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Smirnoff Turns Up the Sound, Spirit, and Celebration at Pride 2025
Smirnoff champions the 2SLGBTQI+ community with vibrant lineup of performances and immersive experiences at Pride Toronto TORONTO, June 9, 2025 /CNW/ - Smirnoff is turning the volume up on joy, self-expression, and togetherness this Pride season. As Canada's #1 Vodka¹ and a proud gold sponsor of Pride Toronto, Smirnoff is showing up with a celebration that's as bold and vibrant as the 2SLGBTQI+ community itself. "As we continue our journey in celebrating Canada's diversity and creating vibrant feel-good moments, Pride Toronto has been a valued part of our commitment to building meaningful connections and inclusive experiences," says Nadia Niccoli, Head of Marketing at Diageo Canada. "We're honoured to celebrate alongside our partners and the 2SLGBTQI+ community with high energy, music, and unmistakable Smirnoff vibes." This year, Smirnoff's Pride float is a moving celebration of music, visibility, and queer joy. Leading the float will be Rêve, Canadian singer-songwriter and Slater Manzo Toronto-based DJ — two 2SLGBTQI+ allies and creative forces who have built a strong presence within the queer community. Together, they'll deliver a soundtrack of unity and celebration as they headline the float through the heart of downtown Toronto. To keep the celebrations going across the city, Smirnoff is turning up the energy with its immersive "Dive into Pride" Ball Pit experience popping up at two of the city's most iconic events — Village Fest from June 20–22 and the Pride Street Fair from June 27–29. Guests can dive into a playful, colourful escape and soak up the Smirnoff vibes with music, fun photo ops and a chance to score exclusive swag and giveaways throughout the experience. Whether you're dancing in the streets or diving into the pit, Smirnoff invites everyone to show up, be loud, and celebrate Pride 2025—just as they are. Because when WE DO WE, we're unstoppable. To learn more about Smirnoff WE DO WE, please visit About Smirnoff Vodka:Smirnoff is the world's number one vodka brand2 and Diageo's most popular spirit brand by volume3. Smirnoff is a brand for everyone and has been enjoyed for more than 150 years. To learn more about Smirnoff and any upcoming news, visit About Diageo:Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands across spirits, beer and wine categories. These brands include Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, J&B, Buchanan's, Smirnoff, Cîroc and Ketel One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness. Diageo is a global company, and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. The company is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and the New York Stock Exchange (DEO). For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice. Celebrating life, every day, everywhere. 1Association of Canadian Distillers Data, Rolling 12 Months, 9L Cases, April 2024. 2 IWSR Global Database, 2023 3 Diageo Performance Results for fiscal year 2023 SOURCE Smirnoff View original content to download multimedia: Sign in to access your portfolio
Cision Canada
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Cision Canada
Smirnoff Turns Up the Sound, Spirit, and Celebration at Pride 2025
TORONTO, June 9, 2025 /CNW/ - Smirnoff is turning the volume up on joy, self-expression, and togetherness this Pride season. As Canada's #1 Vodka¹ and a proud gold sponsor of Pride Toronto, Smirnoff is showing up with a celebration that's as bold and vibrant as the 2SLGBTQI+ community itself. "As we continue our journey in celebrating Canada's diversity and creating vibrant feel-good moments, Pride Toronto has been a valued part of our commitment to building meaningful connections and inclusive experiences," says Nadia Niccoli, Head of Marketing at Diageo Canada. "We're honoured to celebrate alongside our partners and the 2SLGBTQI+ community with high energy, music, and unmistakable Smirnoff vibes." This year, Smirnoff's Pride floa t is a moving celebration of music, visibility, and queer joy. Leading the float will be Rêve, Canadian singer-songwriter and Slater Manzo Toronto-based DJ — two 2SLGBTQI+ allies and creative forces who have built a strong presence within the queer community. Together, they'll deliver a soundtrack of unity and celebration as they headline the float through the heart of downtown Toronto. To keep the celebrations going across the city, Smirnoff is turning up the energy with its immersive "Dive into Pride" Ball Pit experience popping up at two of the city's most iconic events — Village Fest from June 20–22 and the Pride Street Fair from June 27–29. Guests can dive into a playful, colourful escape and soak up the Smirnoff vibes with music, fun photo ops and a chance to score exclusive swag and giveaways throughout the experience. Whether you're dancing in the streets or diving into the pit, Smirnoff invites everyone to show up, be loud, and celebrate Pride 2025—just as they are. Because when WE DO WE, we're unstoppable. To learn more about Smirnoff WE DO WE, please visit About Diageo: Diageo is a global leader in beverage alcohol with an outstanding collection of brands across spirits, beer and wine categories. These brands include Johnnie Walker, Crown Royal, J&B, Buchanan's, Smirnoff, Cîroc and Ketel One vodkas, Captain Morgan, Baileys, Don Julio, Tanqueray and Guinness. Diageo is a global company, and our products are sold in more than 180 countries around the world. The company is listed on both the London Stock Exchange (DGE) and the New York Stock Exchange (DEO). For more information about Diageo, our people, our brands, and performance, visit us at Visit Diageo's global responsible drinking resource, for information, initiatives, and ways to share best practice. Celebrating life, every day, everywhere.
Time Magazine
6 days ago
- Business
- Time Magazine
The History of How Vodka Became America's Spirit of Choice
This summer, millions of Americans will drink vodka in a stunning array of popular cocktails: from the well-known Moscow Mule and martini to the more obscure vesper or Great Gatsby. In 2024, vodka accounted for nearly a quarter of the spirits consumed in the U.S. The clear, neutral spirit has dominated American liquor sales for decades, far surpassing whiskey, which once enjoyed an unchallenged status as the nation's preferred spirit. While whiskey remains a cultural touchstone for claims on American identity, the reality is that American consumers have consistently chosen vodka as their spirit of choice for decades. The story of vodka's rise in the U.S. was closely intertwined with Cold War-era cultural politics and shifting consumer tastes shaped by strategic marketing. While whiskey had long symbolized tradition, rural Americana, and old-world nostalgia, vodka emerged as a sleek, modern alternative. It became a beverage adaptable to changing American lifestyles marked by countercultural politics and globalized consumer culture. Even amid today's craft cocktail renaissance and whiskey revivalism, vodka still stands as the most consumed spirit in bars and homes across the country—proof that Cold War cultural conflicts continue to shape our tastes. Initially, Americans greeted vodka with limited enthusiasm. Late 19 th century newspapers depicted the spirit as a foreign, exotic drink, associated primarily with Russian immigrants who brought their drinking traditions with them. In the 1930s, vodka gained its first meaningful foothold in the U.S. when a Russian immigrant named Rudolph Kunett brought the Smirnoff brand to Bethel, Conn. Over the next decade, the spirit remained mostly a curiosity—far down the pecking order of Americans' drink preferences. Read More: The History Behind Why Canadians are Boycotting American Whiskey Vodka made its real breakthrough during World War II. Businessman John G. Martin, president of the Connecticut based Heublein import company, acquired the struggling Smirnoff vodka brand from Kunett for $14,000 on a whim. In the following years, Martin realized that vodka had huge untapped potential. He emphasized the spirit's flavorlessness as a selling point, rather than a liability. The businessman marketed vodka as "Smirnoff's White Whiskey: No Smell, No Taste," an odorless, flavorless mixer suitable for blending into a wide range of cocktails. Seeing some initial success with this advertising strategy in the 1940s, Martin heavily promoted a wide range of vodka-based drinks to grow the brand's appeal. He popularized not only the Moscow Mule, in its distinctive copper mug, but also the Bloody Mary and the Screwdriver, all of which became household names over the following decades. All of Martin's concoctions emphasized ease of consumption—only requiring one or two ingredients—as well as distinctive presentation. In the first half of the 1950s, vodka sales exploded, rising from 40,000 cases in 1950 to over 4 million by 1955. As a flavorless mixer, vodka filled a gap in the American spirits market, providing bartenders and home drinkers alike with an unchallenging tipple to mix with anything on hand. Interestingly, vodka's rise came against the complex backdrop of the Cold War. As major Cold War events like the Cuban Missile Crisis, the space race, and the Vietnam War fueled American anxieties and obsessions about Soviet power, the spirit found a way to slip past political divisions and into American homes—despite its connections with the Soviet enemy. Companies were aware of the risks of vodka being swept up in Cold War politics. Their marketing campaigns took care to avoid anti-Soviet hostility by emphasizing aspects of Russian culture disconnected from contemporary geopolitics. Advertisers invoked images of Imperial Russia rather than Soviet communism, hyping vodka's sophistication and European heritage. High gloss ads for Smirnoff showed celebrities drinking the spirit in locations ranging from the Russian imperial court to exoticized jungle backgrounds. The vodka bottle became an emblem of elegance and international flair. Observing Smirnoff's success, the company's competitors—brands like Samovar and Wolfschmidt—quickly seized on the same marketing strategy. The transformation of vodka from derided immigrant liquor to acclaimed opulent spirit operated in tandem with a broader cultural shift: as the Baby Boomers came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, they became major consumers and increasingly rejected the cultural norms of the previous generation. Baby Boomers' parents drank whiskey, and they wanted to rebel. To the Boomers, whiskey symbolized traditional masculinity and rural values, deeply rooted in American history and nostalgia for a simpler past. Vodka, conversely, signaled sophistication, fitting comfortably into this generation's desire for newness. Despite the fact that almost all vodka consumed in the U.S. was made in America, the spirit's global associations intertwined with baby boomers' desire for cosmopolitan connection. The spirit's association with Russia only emphasized its freshness—countercultural opposition to the Cold War led many a baby boomer to drink vodka as protest. Heublein, the manufacturer of Smirnoff, attributed their success to a 'youth-sparked movement' as the boomers embraced the company's product. Gender also played a key role. Vodka advertisers marketed the spirit as less challenging for women, even a diet option in some cases. As more women entered the workforce and companies targeted them as consumers, it changed the gender norms around alcohol. Recognizing this, Samovar upset the traditional rules of advertising in 1960 by hiring five women to help market their vodka. Marion Johnson, the company's brand manager and one of the first female liquor advertising directors in the U.S., commented on this new strategy: 'Women generally do not like the taste of liquor. Vodka is said to have no taste. So they can be sociable and still enjoy themselves.' In contrast to this female focused pitch, many whiskey brands in the 1960s and 1970s continued to lean into names and imagery evoking age, tradition, and masculinity. Brands like Old Crow, Old Forester, and Old Grand-Dad sought to signal a deliberate link to a gendered past. The entry of Stolichnaya into the U.S. market in 1972 further cemented vodka's status. Paradoxically, the brand benefitted from its Soviet origins. While Smirnoff and other brands touted their cultural heritage in the pre-Soviet Russian Empire, Stolichnaya entered the U.S. as the first ever Soviet-produced spirit. Through a brand deal with PepsiCo that also saw Pepsi sold in the U.S.S.R, Stolichnaya represented a novel economic exchange between the two superpowers. At a time when Cold War tensions heightened curiosity and suspicion about all things Soviet, American consumers flocked to the new vodka as an edgy, exotic choice—drinking vodka became simultaneously an act of defiance and fascination. A 1974 ad for Stolichnaya displayed four vodka bottles and noted where they were made—Samovar: Schenley, Pa.; Smirnoff: Hartford, Conn.; Wolfschmidt: Lawrenceburg, Ind., and Stolichnaya: Leningrad, U.S.S.R. The tagline proudly trumpeted, 'Most American vodkas seem Russian. Stolichnaya is different. It is Russian.' These claims to authenticity exploded consumption of Stolichnaya, specifically, and vodka, more generally. By 1976, vodka had unseated whiskey as the most consumed spirit in the U.S. Vodka's dominance continued through the 1980s and 1990s with the meteoric rise of Swedish brand Absolut, whose artistic advertising campaigns captured the imagination of a new generation of young Americans. The brand's minimalist bottle and bold, art-infused ads made it a cultural icon, feted in magazines and billboards across the country. During this period, flavored vodkas—from citrus to pepper to vanilla—also took off. American tastes had also fully shifted toward light, easy-drinking spirits whose ad campaigns promised them versatility, fewer calories, and a sense of modern sophistication. Vodka's newfound status as the country's go-to liquor reflected how thoroughly it had reshaped the American drinking landscape. The craft cocktail revolution of the 2000s—when high-end bars, aproned bartenders, and carefully curated liquor menus surged through the country—seemed to pose a threat to vodka's dominance. Craft bartenders often turned their nose up at the flavorless spirit, and the Wall Street Journal in 2009 triumphantly declared, 'vodka is passe.' Yet, despite repeated claims of vodka's demise, it remains America's top-selling spirit. That's a testament to its successful reinvention during a crucial period of American cultural change. Whiskey, which has experienced a resurgence over the past 15 years, has never regained its mass-market dominance. The Cold War era fundamentally reshaped American drinking culture, aligning vodka's blank-slate versatility with new cultural identities less rooted in tradition and place, and more in global consumerism and modernist aesthetics. Reflecting on vodka's ascendance helps illuminate how consumer choices are deeply connected to broader cultural and political trends. The story of vodka is the story of modern America, encased in a clear, flavorless spirit that appears neutral but retains cultural power. E. Kyle Romero is an assistant professor at the University of North Florida. He studies the history of American foreign policy, immigration politics, and global consumer economics.
Daily Mail
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Millie Court turns heads in a summery orange crop top and white jeans as she supports best pal Chloe Burrows at her live podcast recording in London
Millie Court stunned in a summery orange crop top and white trousers as she attended her best pal Chloe Burrows' live podcast recording in London on Thursday. The Love Island winner, 29, looked incredible in the eye catching halterneck top and low rise white jeans as she sipped on Smirnoff's new 'Miami Peach' drink. Millie elevated her frame in a pair of sandals and accessorised with a pair of dazzling star shaped earrings. The reality star was all smiles as she posed for photos at the event while sipping on her cocktail. Meanwhile Chloe wowed in a busty pink corset bodysuit which she paired with denim ripped jeans. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the Daily Mail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. The TV personality added inches to her frame in a pair of bold pink stilettos and styled her long blonde tresses loose in waves. Chloe later beamed as she posed with Whitney Adebayo, who looked stunning in a bright pink bodysuit and jeans. The ITV2 stars enjoyed several cocktails as they posed at the bar showcasing their pouts. Guest took their seats at the venue as Chloe took to the stage for her Chloe Vs The World podcast recording. The event was also attended by Mel B's daughter Phoenix Brown who cut a casual figure in a black hoodie and matching trousers. She layered the zip front jumper over a green T-shirt and kept comfortable in a pair of tan boots. Celebrity Big Brother star Danny Beard cut a cool figure in a grey short sleeved shirt and matching trousers as he beamed for photos at the event. It comes after Chloe sparked concern among her fans after sharing a snap of herself with a swollen face earlier this month. The event was also attended by Mel B's daughter Phoenix Brown who cut a casual figure in a black hoodie and matching trousers The Love Island star, 29, took to Instagram to ask her followers how their morning was going, but instead garnered attention for her bruised and swollen eye and slightly puffy cheeks. Chloe looked glum in the snap in which she went make-up free, with the blonde beauty's eye partially closed amid the mystery ailment. In her next Instagram story, Chloe was quick to ensure her fans that she was fine, however, she did little to quell the concern as she was seen sporting a black eyepatch. Giving a thumbs up while displaying the eye covering, Chloe penned: 'Guys the last story was meant to be funny pls don't be concerned x Regular programming by force.' MailOnline have contacted Chloe's representatives for comment. Earlier this year, Chloe shared a very 'traumatising' experience from her trip to Australia. The reality star spent Christmas and New Year down under with best pal Millie Court, Liam Reardon and a group of their friends. Despite clearly having a lot of fun during the holiday, Chloe admitted she had one bad experience where lifeguards were forced to rescue her from a riptide. On Joe Baggs' Not My Bagg podcast, he asked Chloe if she had any wild stories to tell listeners. Chloe then shared: 'On Christmas day we went to Bronte Beach and it was an actual rave on the beach. I really need a wee and they had public toilets but the queue was f***ing huge so I was like, 'I'll just go in the sea I don't care.' 'So, I run with my friend down to the water to go for a wee and I got in and I'm trying to go for a wee and this huge wave, and I am drunk, like I should not be swimming it is unsafe and was very silly of me, but anyways this huge wave is taking me out. 'I got caught in a riptide so I'm now so far away from the shore and I'm like trying to call my friends.' Joe asked: 'Did you still go for a wee?' She replied: 'Yeah well I p***ed myself from being scared. I probably s*** in the sea as well, it was really traumatising and then two lifeguards are coming and pull me back to shore and I was just a drunk mess. It was just pure chaos.' Chloe shared several stunning snaps to social media from her time in Australia, including one in a skimpy red bikini on Christmas day. It comes after Chloe went public with her new romance, three years after her Toby Aromolaran split. The influencer, who shot to fame on Love Island in 2021 with Toby, went public with her new man, Ruben Moreira as she moved on from her former romance. She posted a picture on her Instagram Stories of her and Ruben, with fans immediately taking this to mean she was 'soft launching' her new relationship. It's understood Chloe met Ruben through Love Island co-star and pal Liam Reardon, as the two men are friends.
New Indian Express
19-05-2025
- Business
- New Indian Express
Guinness maker Diageo cuts costs, eyes US tariff hit
LONDON: Diageo, the maker of Guinness stout and Smirnoff vodka, said Monday it would cut costs to reduce debt, as the British group anticipates a hit from US tariffs of $150 million. The announcements from Diageo, whose brands also include Johnnie Walker whisky and Baileys liqueur, were included in an earnings statement that showed total group sales rose nearly three percent to around $4.38 billion in its third quarter. "We view the near-term industry pressure as largely macro-economic driven, with continued uncertainty impacting both the timing and pace of recovery," Diageo chief executive Debra Crew said in the statement. The maker of Astral tequila and Captain Morgan rum said it plans cost savings of around $500 million over three years under the first phase of its Accelerate programme. It leaves the company "well-positioned to deliver sustainable, consistent performance while maximising shareholder returns; even if current trading conditions persist", Crew added. The CEO said Diageo would share further detail of Accelerate in its full-year results due in August. Diageo's share price was steady Monday on London's benchmark FTSE 100 index, which was down 0.6 percent overall in late morning deals following the updates. While "tariffs are likely to cause an annualised hit of some $150 million on profits... the group estimates that its mitigating actions, such as increasing prices, cost control and supply chain management will limit the damage", noted Richard Hunter, head of markets at Interactive Investor.
