Michael Crawford's "This Vodka Has Legs" Drawings

Drawing by Michael Crawford

Reading David Remnick’s tribute to Michael Crawford in this week’s issue, I was reminded of Arthur Lubow’s great “This Vodka Has Legs” (The New Yorker, September 12, 1994), which Crawford illustrated. Lubow’s piece is a fascinating inside look at the creation of an ad campaign – Stolichnaya’s “Freedom of Vodka.” Crawford’s drawings sketch scenes of various meetings between the advertising agency (Margeotes, Fertitta, Donaher & Weiss) and the client (Carillon Importers). My favorite shows a presentation of a “comp” (a provisional ad) to Carillon’s president, Michel Roux, and two other Carillon executives, in which one of Margeotes’s presenters says, “I think it’s important that we look at this holistically” (see above). “This Vodka Has Legs” deserves preservation in book form. Maybe someday, it will appear in a collection of Lubow’s journalism. If it does, I hope Crawford’s drawings are included.