That Kylie Jenner debuted an alcohol brand, Sprinter Vodka, is less of a surprise than the method Kylie Jenner has selected to debut her vodka company. Subtle social media plugs are one thing but going full Bottega Veneta is another.
You could say it's more like Kylie going full Kendall. Kendall Jenner also has her own alcohol label, 818 Tequilla, and is a full-on Bottega Veneta ambassador in her own right. Maybe Kylie's just keeping it all in the family.
Either way, Kylie was seen clutching a conspicuously bright blue Sprinter Vodka case while exiting her Los Angeles office on March 3, wearing a lite Bottega look of black leather jacket and snub-nosed boots (the Martine Rose hat was a little less on-brand).
But when I say that Kylie channeled Bottega to soft-launch a vodka soda line, I'm not really talking about the clothes: I mean that she channeled the fashion house's brilliantly subliminal Spring 2024 campaign.
That was when Bottega quietly tapped paparazzi to lens Kendall Jenner and A$AP Rocky as they lived their daily, fashionable lives while wearing then-unreleased Bottega clothes. The photos were uploaded to paparazzi sites without mention of the string-pulling behind the scenes: photogs being called, clothes being styled.
After a few months of its stylish charade, Bottega revealed in December 2023 that the seemingly incidental images were actually a devilishly clever marketing push unwittingly reshared by folks simply taken in by Rocky and Kendall's admitted good looks. The rug pull's confirmation only boosted the winds behind the campaign's sails.
The artificial paparazzi technique was canny because it inverted the already thin artifice of paparazzi pictures — sure, plenty of them truly are happenstance but an untold number are actually planned in cooperation with the shutterbugs to ensure quality pictures of well-planned outfits.
It's celebrity kayfabe and we all accept it.
Bottega Veneta's self-aware campaign laid this pretense bare with two of the biggest A-listers in the biz, a meta-recipe for viral success. It helped that even taken separately, the outfits were pretty great.
Bottega's work proved so potent that Ariana Grande borrowed the idea to break the news of her new album, the moment when similarly low-key real-world promos peaked.
Anyways, if it was anyone else, there might be a real question of is-she-isn't-she. But Kylie Jenner knows what she's doing.
The way that cases of Sprinter Vodka have been positioned ever-so obviously in the background of Kylie's Instagram Stories and TikTok videos; that she's so obviously toting a sleek mini-case of Sprinter, logo facing out, in the crook of her leather-wrapped arm in the March 3 photos — there is no coincidence here.
We all know that nothing the Kardashian-Jenner family does is accidental. But it is interesting that Kylie took the Bottega route to reveal her vodka brand, moving beyond social media teases to what're likely pre-planned paparazzi pictures — a real sign of the times.
It's demonstrative of how useful this lo-fi technique is in building buzz for brand rollouts. The lack of anything concrete plants widespread speculation which, in turn, yields a bumper crop of interest once the brand launches. Hype peaks, taste-tests and reviews ensue, money rolls in.
And Sprinter is already listed online at alcohol stores like ABC and Instacart so we knew it was launching imminently (Kylie confirmed its existence on March 5).
It's all a little more blatant than, say, Justin Bieber humbly revealing what appears to be his new streetwear brand — did he know that the photographers would get shots showing the bottom of his sneaker soles? Did he purposely wear those shoes on days out or was it an accident, just Bieber testing out some new gear?
By comparison, Kylie might as well have taken out a Sprinter billboard.
But it makes more sense that this vodka label would be positioned to debut with a more modest push. Unlike Kylie's beauty brands and KHY, her budget-friendly clothing label, Sprinter doesn't bear Kylie's marketable name. And it might be more difficult to promote on her personal page, where alcohol is only rarely part of her curated lifestyle.
So by instead hyping Sprinter through totally-not-accidental sneak peeks, Kylie has her cake and eats it too.
Subliminal teases are rarely ever this obvious. But that doesn't mean they aren't effective.
