Svedka's sexbot is returning to a culture awash in anti-woke horniness

In January 2025, one day after The Sazerac Company closed its ~$410-million acquisition of Svedka from Constellation Brands, I bravely asked the question on everybody’s¹ mind. Namely: “Will The Sazerac Company bring back Svedka’s weirdly thicc robot now that woke is dead?”

Fingers can now report that the answer is an uncomfortably curvaceous “yes.”

My spot checks of the brand’s official Instagram account throughout the spring suggested that the workhorse vodka’s new handlers at Sazerac were ramping up for a reintroduction of the mascot, but its last post was on April Fool’s Day, and you know how that goes. Still, over the past few months, the FingersTip™️ Line has occasionally buzzed with word that Svedka’s extremely suggestive humanoid would soon be returning to the limelight. And this week, Svedka’s website has been reduced to a single static page showing a teaser photo of the booze brand’s buxom, previously banished bot. A spokesperson for Sazerac, Victoria Zabel-Wirdak, declined via email to answer questions about, or even confirm, the character’s return, saying only that the conglomerate would have more to share in the coming weeks. But we are she is so back, you guys.

As for why she left in the first place… recall, the brand’s “spokeswoman” caused quite a stir (ahem) upon her introduction in 2005 under the direction of Svedka’s previous US owner, Spirits Marque One LLC. As Business Insider reported when Constellation eventually decommissioned her in 2013 (emphasis mine):

Those restrictions are still in place in the most recent version of DISCUS’ “Code of Responsible Practices for Beverage Alcohol Advertising and Marketing,” a 26-page document of self-regulatory seriousness last updated in 2023. The trade org did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

There’s probably a bigger/thinkier piece here about how the resurrection of Svedka Grl (this was/is her official name, I guess?) fits into the right-wing media’s current project of recoding white women’s sexuality as an epic rebuke to liberal feminist mores, rather than moral depravity produced by those same mores. Y’know, The Sydney Sweeney/American Eagle of it all. Not to mention, we’re currently living through an artificial-intelligence bubble that’s a) being pumped by extremely wealthy guys who are often horny right-wingers themselves, and b) already entrapping lonely marks in pseudosexual “relationships” with clankers. Maybe I’ll write that essay when Sazerac officially rolls out Svedka’s erstwhile mascot nationwide. (If you see her in the wild, send me a tip.)

In the meantime, a prediction: before the end of the year, Vice President of the United States and try-hard groyper J.D. Vance is going to tweet something creepy about Svedka Grl to try to own the libs. Hope I’m wrong!

👍 And now, a brief word from our not-sponsor…

This isn’t a paid ad—just a quick plug for Beer Branding Trends from my pals at CODO Design. The Indianapolis-based branding firm has worked with 95+ breweries and publishes a sharp, twice-monthly newsletter that helps me keep up with how the look, feel, and business of American bev-alc is evolving. It’s always insightful and beautifully put together. If you’re into this space, give it a look: https://beerbrandingtrends.com

Editor’s note: Interested in doing this sort of in-kind cross-promotion with Fingers? Get in touch: [email protected].

📬 Good post alert

If you see a good post that the Fingers Fam should know about, please send me that good post via email, or a DM on Bluesky or Instagram.

📚 Why the labor movement hasn’t dropped the hammer

Welcome to Boozeletter Book Reviews, spotlighting new-to-me volumes relevant to the business and culture of drinking in America. Please consider purchasing your books via The Fingers Reading Room to support the boozeletter, thank you.

Perhaps you’ve noticed that the once-mighty American labor movement has not shown itself to be particularly mighty in the face of the Trump administration’s deadly persecution of workers, wanton destruction of the social welfare state, et cetera. There are exceptions, of course. But for the most part, the country’s biggest unions have mostly tried to chart the small-c conservative path, fighting the fascist project in the courts even as the highest court in the land has greenlit the administration’s schemes to tear up collective bargaining agreements for hundreds of thousands of union members and summarily lay off hundreds of thousands more. Perhaps you’ve wondered why organized labor—which represents thousands of workers across the beverage-alcohol industry, by the way—has studiously declined to use its most powerful weapon in this fight: the strike.

If so, you need to read Hamilton Nolan’s 2024 book, The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and The Struggle for the Soul of Labor.² It lays out, in painful detail, how even before Trump’s reelection, American unions’ leaders had failed to organize new members with the urgency that their collective decline demands. Nolan is one of the sharpest columnists working today, but mere punditry, The Hammer ain’t: his debut book is full of shoe-leather reporting from picket lines, union halls, organizing ridealongs, and everything in between, all over the country. His examinations of labor leaders’ bureaucratic devotion to strategies that have delivered the country’s lowest union density in half a century are infuriating; his profiles of tireless work of rank-and-file organizers and ascendant leaders trying to build a fighting labor movement—to swing the hammer, as it were—are invigorating. Nolan is of the labor movement, but you don’t have to be to appreciate The Hammer’s thesis these days. All you have to do is read the news. 8.5/10.

📚 Previously: Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through the Heart of America's Fast-Food Kingdom

🤝 Consider a paid subscription to Fingers

This edition of the boozeletter is free for all to read, but most aren’t. If you’re still on the free list, now is a great time to change that:

You’ll get all of Fingers’ award-winning coverage about drinking in America straight to your inbox, plus access to the archives. This publication is 100% reader-supported, and I can’t do it without you. Hope to see you on the other side of the paywall!—Dave.

📲 The best Fingers meme ever and/or lately

Don’t miss out, follow Fingers on Instagram today. It’s free and your feed will thank you. (Not really, that would be weird. But you know what I mean.)

1  Citation needed.

2  You should also subscribe to his excellent newsletter, How Things Work, to which I often link from The Weekender. It’s free, but I think Nolan’s work is worth paying to support.