This article examines the interplay of vodka branding and politics in post-Soviet Russia. The trajectory of vodka branding over the past three decades reflects shifts in politics and articulates changes in ideology, while setting the environment in which certain sociopolitical ideas unfold and become naturalized. The analysis suggests that the political economy and historical dynamics of a market system, and the societal standing of the commodity being branded, define and frame the potentialities of marketing meanings and their ideological inflections. © The Author(s) 2012.