Absolut Stupidity
By Alan Stewart Carl | Related entries in NewsThe vodka brand Absolut has released an ad in Mexico depicting a pre-1848 map with the U.S. western states as part of Mexico. The headline: In an Absolut World. The result: outrage.
The makers of Absolut have pulled the campaign and apologized for offending anyone.
Talk about a stupid advertising idea. I’m sure it was amusing to people in Mexico but Absolut had to know this would be seen by Americans who would be less than impressed. You simply don’t make jokes about national borders. People get touchy about borders, they fight wars over borders. Can you imagine if Absolut ran an ad in Northern Iraq showing the border of a Kurdistan and using a headline that made such an arrangement sound like a good idea? I’m sure Turkey would be a little upset.
Absolut should stick to amusing little ads of no or light political commentary. Some people are going to boycott them for this stupidity. That’s not an issue for me. I find the beverage of rather poor quality to begin with.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 8th, 2008 and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
April 8th, 2008 at 11:12 am
[...] more Absolut boycott blogging: Gateway Pundit / Donklephant / The Latin Americanist / 5 Blogs Before Lunch These icons link to social bookmarking sites where [...]
April 8th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
Here’s a point of view from one Canadian Denial and not the river
Give me a break it’s just plain old history just like slavery and the
hundreds Of thousands of native Indians that died on this continent
you can’t deny that that didn’t happen or do we just want to forget
it all like it never happen at all here’s a proud race of people and they
also deserve the right to print any material they want just like we all
have the freedoms given to us by our predecessors
Yours Truly
Stathis Lampropoulos
April 8th, 2008 at 12:52 pm
Are you serious? That ad campaign and the reaction to it is a publicity agent’s dream- and it just gets better with yahoo rednecks and paranoid wingnuts getting there knickers all in a twist about it. A boycott ? What a joke. What member of this subclass of humans ever sprung for a bottle of vodka in the first place except by accident or desperation? The ad is nothing less than brilliant- not least in the fact that it has, in flash, raised the collective IQ of practically most of the population of the USA in terms of understanding a certain reality American history. That ad will translate into perhaps it’s most remarkable boost in name recognition yet- but than again Absolute has always been,for the most part, exceptionally talented concerning publicity.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
It was a very talented publicity by Absolut………and it is just part of the history between Mexico-US and how the US did an unfair war (1846-1848) taking advantage from Mexico’s weakness just years after Mexico get independent from Spain and take half of our territory. Last week in the National Public Radio (NPR) someone gave some numbers to remember. According with reports from the US Immigration Services, there are living in the US about 46 millions of latinoamericans, 32 millions are mexicans (first generation) almost the whole population from Spain, Argentina Central America or any European Union country. From the 32M, 14 millions are illegals. From every 3 births in the US one come from Mexicans who live in the US. So is very interesting how Mexicans are reconquest those territories with not army in a very peacefully way just repopulate it!!!!. Now Mexico-US are writing contemporary history. No borders, no walls can stop it unfortunately for some people. Our culture and traditions are so strong that you can find in every US State and every town. So Absolut just mention something that everyone knows in the South of border and in the rest of the world.
April 8th, 2008 at 4:58 pm
R . Hawkins…..
Spoken like a true Ad Man………….now where did I set down my can of New Coke?
April 9th, 2008 at 10:19 am
I will never drink Absolut again. I wish I was a Stoli distributor. Everytime I order a Martini I will now say “Anything but Absolut”
They have got to be the worlds stupidest ad agency.