Effen Vodka, Allies in Arts Use Package Design to Celebrate Pride

TO DEMONSTRATE ITS commitment to building a more inclusive tomorrow, Effen Vodka worked with nonprofit organization Allies in Arts and LGBTQQIA2S artist and street muralist Sam Kirk to create the Effen Vodka 2021 Pride 365 Bottle.

Beam Suntory, which owns the Effen Vodka brand, commissioned Kirk to design the bottle, which celebrates the Black and LGBTQQIA2S communities and highlights that each day is an opportunity to live loud, vibrant and proud.

“We’re huge fans of Sam’s work and thrilled with how the Pride 365 bottle came out,” Ivan Hidalgo, senior marketing director of regional brands at Beam Suntory, says. “There’s no doubting the immense obstacles and barriers the LGBTQQIA2S and Black communities continue to face, and we are honored to join forces with Allies in Arts and Sam to create the 2021 Pride 365 Bottle not only showcasing the Pride colors but really supporting the underrepresented artists in these communities.”

The 2021 Pride 365 Bottle is not the first time the brand has used package design to step up on the issue of inclusivity. Since 2018, Effen Vodka has created limited-edition Pride bottles to celebrate self-expression, support diversity and champion the LGBTQQIA2S community, including supporting organizations like Outfest.

This year, Effen Vodka chose to focus on underrepresented individuals in creative industries by partnering with Allies in Arts to bolster their mission of empowering creative voices and providing fair-paid work for artists who identify as womxn, BIPOC and LGBTQQIA2S . “We are very grateful for Effen’s partnership in support of our mission to promote and hire artists who are women, BIPOC and queer,” Allies in Arts designer and Effen Vodka decal artist Kyle Lasky, says.

Effen Vodka has also commissioned two Allies in Arts community members to create two sets of vinyl bottle decals for fans to decorate their Effen Vodka bottles at home. The collections include the Boldly Black collection, illustrated by queer nonbinary Afro-Latinx artist Acacia Rodriguez, and the Pride 365 collection, designed by trans artist and activist Kyle Lasky. Both collections will be available alongside the bottle at retail.

Beam Suntory is furthering this project’s social responsibility reach by making a donation to Allies in Arts to support the nonprofit’s mission of amplifying the voices of underrepresented artistic creatives for every 750-mL Effen Vodka 2021 Pride 365 Bottle made. The limited-edition vodka and its specially designed socially minded packaging are now available nationwide.