Absolut Vodka Goggles
9 04 2008
by lestro
How is it that the nation ranked ninth in the world in academics and first in most affordable education didn’t see that this ad might cause a problem or two?
In this image released by the Mexican advertising firm of Teran/TBWA on Monday April 7, 2008, an advertisement created for Swedish Absolut Vodka which ran in Mexico, shows a map of the border of Mexico and the United States where it stood before the Mexican-American War of 1848. The Absolut vodka company apologized for the ad campaign amid angry calls for a boycott by U.S. consumers.
(AP Photo/Teran/TBWA)
Needless to say, the right wingers went absolutely batshit, going so far as to create their own response:
The National Illegal Immigration Boycott Coalition (NIIBC) is known nationally for prior sustained boycotts against Miller Brewing and Bank of America for their support for illegal aliens in the US.
The NIIBC has launched a new website at www.boycottabsolut.com to inform American consumers and provide resources for citizens to engage in the boycott.
“Absolut vodka is trying to sell liquor to Mexicans that aspire to control the Southwest United States,” says William Gheen of ALIPAC.
“The warning signs are everywhere. Illegal immigration is creating a rising threat to our existing border lines and the very existence of the United States. The separatist sentiments and animus towards America are prevalent in the Mexican population and the ranks of illegal aliens inside the US creating a clear and present danger to our nation. Everywhere we look, Global corporations have a hand in this brewing disaster and Absolut just made the list.”
I love that the fence extends out into the ocean on both sides…
The company has obviously apologized and offered to send back the bikini team as a distraction.
Absolut said the ad was designed for a Mexican audience and intended to recall “a time which the population of Mexico might feel was more ideal.”
“As a global company, we recognize that people in different parts of the world may lend different perspectives or interpret our ads in a different way than was intended in that market, and for that we apologize.”
Vin & Sprit, Absolut’s Sweden-based parent company, will be acquired by French spirit maker Pernod Ricard SA under a deal reached last week.
Swedes and Mexicans teaming up? What’s next? Lutfisk burritos? The Mexican Bobsled team? “Livin la vida Abba?”
or worse:
apocalyptickiwi
deaconloadz
humboldtsquid
squishmael
Sweden has a history of being dumber than a bag of hammers about international affairs. They stood by in neutrality during WWII, didn’t they? Further proof is that they would run an intimidating advert like this and NOT expect the US to find out.
I guess they were counting on Americans to be so insular that it would sneak right past. Oopsie!
PS: Absolut is just toxic waste with a slick advertising campaign. Smirnov is better vodka anyway.
Well, is not that the US would not find out about the advertisement, they rather recognized the ignorance of that country, which today makes no difference how they got the territory, did they steal it? Just like oil these days? Who cares!! They have got it and that is what matters.
And by the way, Sweden is way more advanced in many aspects than any country in America. America meaning a continent, not just a country.
Smirnoff a better vodka? Originally Russian, which is a country that has always been against the US? No wonder why the world believes the most powerful nation is also the most ignorant ;)
hey now, we stole that land from the indians, not the mexicans.
we beat the mexicans in a war and took it from them fair and square.
you’d never see the norwegians do something like this. ;]
lestro; so because war was declared, taking their land was fair? as i recall, nazis ceclared war on poland, russia, great britain, and france. was it fair to stand by and not intervene, or was the correct thing to do to defend our western allies?
mexican and indian land was all stolen by pioneers. the fact that the average middle-american still defends acts from the 1600s-1800s today shows how self-conscious they are about the same atrocities that continue in iraq and afghanistan today - under the guise of manifest destiny.
it was sarcasm.