- Steve Miller, Brandweek

DETROIT To generate new interest in vermouth, Martini & Rossi is bringing back some vintage Warhol.

Martini & Rossi is partnering with the Andy Warhol Foundation to launch four "new" print ads featuring illustrations created by the late pop artist. "Warhol's take on taste" breaks later this month in lifestyle magazines in six markets (New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, D.C., New Orleans and Savannah, Ga.).

Warhol was a much-in-demand commercial artist in the advertising industry when Martini & Rossi tapped him to do creative for an ad campaign that ran in the U.S. from 1956 to 1963.

The revived ads support an endeavor to bring back the iconic vermouth-based martini that was favored in the early '60s. Six new twists on the drink will be featured in restaurants, bars and clubs in the designated markets.

The revived series of four print ads drawn by Warhol in the late '50s and early '60s for Martini & Rossi will run through the end of the year.

Martini & Rossi will unveil the new martinis at an invitation-only Martini & Rossi Warhol Factory party (being held in New York on August 6) what would have been Warhol's 80th birthday.

"Martini & Rossi was ahead of the curve when they identified Warhol's talents in 1956 and they are once again ahead of the curve with this campaign that redefines vermouth and the art of the aperitif," Michael Hermann, director of licensing, at the Andy Warhol Foundation, said in a statement. McCann Erickson, New York, is the agency.

Martini & Rossi spent $1.5 million on ads last year, per Nielsen Monitor-Plus.