Lovisa Severin Kragerud

Archivist and Chief Storyteller, The Absolut Group

Lovisa joined TAG almost seven years ago to set up an in-house archive function, collecting stories from the portfolio’s brands’ past and present. It is, in all aspects, a perfect match for an archivist who loves history and good stories.

What does a Chief Storyteller do at work?

Here at TAG, it’s like being a historical consultant. Colleagues and external stakeholders ask me all sorts of questions about our brands’ history, how society looked in the past, and in which context our previous campaigns were created.

Can you tell us about an exciting project you have worked on recently?

In July, I was interviewed for two days by Sveriges Television, the Swedish national public television broadcaster, for an upcoming show about Nordic Design in the last century. In one of the episodes, the iconic Absolut Vodka bottle will be one of the stars of the show, so I had the opportunity to show some gems from the archives, like the original sketches, bottle prototypes and some of the iconic Absolut ads. We got to tell the amazing story of how a vodka bottle became the hero of a 25-year-long advertising campaign.

What’s the biggest discovery you’ve made so far?

While digging through the Kahlúa archives, I found two Pre-Colombian figurines that were used in Kahlúa’s advertising during the 1960s to 1980s. After some research, we found out that they were 2500 years old, and that they were from the cultural tradition of “Tumbas del Tiro”, present between 300 BC and 600 AD in the western region of Mexico.

What happened to the artefacts?

We decided that we wanted to repatriate the two figurines to the Mexican State where they belong. They are now safe and sound in Museo Nacional de Antropologia in Mexico City. After the ceremonial handover, held at the Mexican Embassy in Stockholm, I was interviewed by the Wall Street Journal, as it turned out that we were one of very few companies that have ever initiated a repatriation of historical artefacts. Sadly, it’s much more common for museums and companies to hold on to objects that rightfully belong to other countries. Handing over these artefacts was probably the proudest moment – and the biggest relief – of my career.