Media

Absolutly Outrageous!

MayorBob.

Posted to Media on Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 09:54:43 AM EST (promoted by port1080). RSS.

One of the main purposes of advertising is to gain name recognition.  You can accomplish that by waxing eloquent about your product's excellent quality.  Or you can connect your product with the life style you want your product to be connected with.  Or you can get away from the product entirely, opting to say "I'm hip and irreverent and ever so slightly obnoxious" and appeal to the hip and irreverent crowd.  The first two ways of shilling are straight from the Advertising 101 text book.  The latter way of doing is potentially hazardous in that you might offend enough people that your campaign generates more of a WTF response than a willingness to sample the brand.  Then there's the surefire turnoff demonstrated by a certain Swedish vodka company.

Absolut is the name of the vodka and the billboard and press ad was created by Mexican advertising firm TERAN/TBWA.  It graphically asks the reader to forget about that chapter of American history known as the Mexican-American War of 1848.  This is because the text proclaims "IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD" while the map displays the pre-1848 borders between Estados Unidos and Mexico - Oops, looks like we just lost most everything between California and the Mississippi River.  Thus far the ad has only been running on Mexican billboards and in the Mexican media.  The ad campaign has been playing very well down in Mexico.  A non-Mexican latino advertising executive, Favio Ucedo, says the campaign jibes with Mexican national sentiments towards the US:

"Mexicans talk about how the Americans stole their land, so this is their way of reclaiming it. It's very relevant and the Mexicans will love the idea."
According to Ucedo, if the same campaign were run in the US, "it would probably fall flat."  In this global village of ours, news like the Absolut campaign spreads really quickly.  And the prevailing sentiment among bloggers and newspaper boards which are discussing this is "Absolut no mas."  From Pennsylvania, editorial opinion speaks about Absolut's "arrogance."  Texas papers react negatively to the vodka company's redrawing of the Southern border.  US blogs, which have run this story, invariably have negative comments posted to the effect of "hold the Absolut, bring me the Stoli or Grey Goose."

A number of conservative bloggers (and one New York news station) have called for a boycott of Absolut.  Reacting to the backlash, the company announced it was ending the ad campaign.  But, that may have come a little too late, as many people still have sworn off Absolut as a matter of national pride.

Tags: edited by Port1080, written by MayorBob, vodka, advertising, Mexico, boycott (all tags)

This story: 37 comments (2 from subqueue)
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2

Hilarious

keta.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 01:07:58 PM EST

5.00 (astute)

The brouhaha over this offers a simple reminder that the absurdist element that brought us "Freedom Fries" is alive and well in the US.

America never ceases to amuse in its complete and utter inability to take a joke at its own expense.

4

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Re: Hilarious

port1080.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 01:27:55 PM EST

none

Do you not think there'd be a similar brouhaha in Canada if Absolut had run a campaign in Quebec mapping out all of the former French Canadian territories as an independent country?

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^ 4

Re: Hilarious

keta.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 02:27:56 PM EST

none

Probably.  And I'd laugh my ass off at those humourless twits, too.

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^ 2

Aye, yii, yii, yiiii

Steve Urkel.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 01:56:32 PM EST

none

I'm all for jokes, but I also believe in justice. Since the Mexicans forced Frito Lay to get rid of the delightful Frito Bandito, Americans forcing Absolute to get rid of this ad is entirely appropriate.

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Re: Aye, yii, yii, yiiii

thefadd.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 02:06:49 PM EST

1.00

But Frito Lay sucks.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

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^ 8

It's not like Absolute is great, either

Steve Urkel.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 02:09:19 PM EST

4.00 (astute)

Sucks? They put the fun in onions to make Funyons.

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^ 8

Re: Aye, yii, yii, yiiii

PenitenziAgite.

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 08:55:20 PM EST

none

So does Absolut, for that matter.  Go buy some Московская if you want real vodka.  Absolut tastes like it was made in a lab.

sierra tango foxtrot uniform

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Re: Aye, yii, yii, yiiii

thefadd.

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 09:00:43 PM EST

none

You won't get an argument on that here.

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

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Re: Aye, yii, yii, yiiii

JimmyHavok.

Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 04:04:51 AM EST

none

One of my girlfriend's co-workers went back home to Macedonia, and brought back some Bison (bee-sown) Vodka.  Now that tasted like it had been made in a paint factory.

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Re: Aye, yii, yii, yiiii

PenitenziAgite.

Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 08:19:58 PM EST

none

I was on a business trip to Bulgaria a couple of years ago, and I bought some cheap generic Bulgarian vodka.  It must be a cut above the Macedonian stuff, but it was pretty heinous.  It tasted as though is wasn't so much distilled as synthesized.

Now, in the Balkans where both Macedonia and Bulgaria are, their special little brand of evil is ракия, which tastes like someone threw a bucket of plums in some jet fuel.

sierra tango foxtrot uniform

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Re: Aye, yii, yii, yiiii

keta.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 02:29:24 PM EST

none

Man, I loved that song as a kid.  Drove my parents bonkers singing it day and night.

3

Re: Absolutly Outrageous!

port1080.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 01:22:45 PM EST

5.00 (astute)

Who green lighted this campaign? It's right up there with the abortive Volkswagen "chutzpah" campaign from a few years back. I'm not a particularly PC person, but nonetheless, I think the conservative bloggers have something of a point with this one. Would Absolut think it a good idea to run a similar campaign in Germany with the German borders drawn to include Austria, Alsace-Lorraine, and the Sudetenland? Or for that matter, would they run an "IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD" in Sweden with the Swedish map redrawn to include all the territories of the 18th century Swedish Empire*? Mexico has some legitimate grievances over the trans-Mississippi, but the descendants of the Aztec and Maya have some pretty legitimate grievances over the existence of Mexico as well. Would Mexicans appreciate an Absolut ad campaign targeting the Zapatistas in Chiapas that drew a map of an independent southern Maya country made up of Mexico's Yucatan provinces? These are academic and political debates - they're not the things that good ad campaigns make (unless the company in question really wants to be drawn into political debates, which I doubt they do). Anyone with a lick of common sense should have realized this and axed that campaign before it even got into the initial planning stages.

*For those not in the know, this included most of present day northern Norway, all of Finland, much of the three Baltic countries, some chunks of Russia, and a few bits of northern Germany.

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^ 3

There's a short answer to your question.

MayorBob.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 01:34:37 PM EST

5.00 (astute)

If Absolut thought it would sell them a single case more of their vodka, yes, Absolut would run it.  

As soon as they caught heat from the US (I gotta believe a much larger market for vodka than Mexico) over the ad, it didn't take them long to say "uh huh, just kidding" and shut it down.  I'm guessing here, but I bet that this ad doesn't really cost Absolut any real business in the US and they managed to get their message across to the Mexicans.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

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Re: There's a short answer to your question.

port1080.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 01:46:29 PM EST

none

If Absolut thought it would sell them a single case more of their vodka, yes, Absolut would run it...I'm guessing here, but I bet that this ad doesn't really cost Absolut any real business in the US

That's my point though - I do think it will cost them in their US business. They got a short term boost in Mexico at the expense of their US business. Maybe in the end it was worth it, and they will make up their loss by increased sales in Mexico, but that's hard to say. This argument also relies on the notion that there was no other way to increase their Mexico sales than to run this ad - if they could have increased their Mexico sales without pissing off Americans, that would have been the smartest path, wouldn't it? If I was Absolut, I would be blacklisting that ad company right this minute and making sure my advertising department was strongly reminded to think about the longterm effect of their campaigns on the entire company, and not just short term gains in particular markets.

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Re: Absolutly Outrageous!

thefadd.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 02:08:56 PM EST

4.50 (funny, funny, funny)

"IN AN ABSOLUT WORLD" in Sweden with the Swedish map redrawn to include all the territories of the 18th century Swedish Empire*?

I think they absolutely should. What peoples in their right mind wouldn't greet as liberators the shock and awe of a Swedish bikini team invasion?

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

33

Re: Absolutly Outrageous!

PenitenziAgite.

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 09:03:59 PM EST

5.00 (funny, astute)

I, for one, am deeply offended by this ad that is running in publications I will never read in a country I do not live in.  How dare they bring up the fact that an entire portion of the U.S. was once part of Mexico.

sierra tango foxtrot uniform

1

Re: Absolutly Outrageous!

gerrymander.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 11:11:49 AM EST

4.25 (funny, brilliant, brilliant)

The most offensive thing about this ad campaign is how one-sided it is. If Absolut is going to pander to imperialism, then by God it can pander to my imperialism, too. Run a US-wide ad that shows an "Absolut World America", where the northern border goes up to the Arctic Circle, the southern border is the Panama Canal, Mexico City has been renamed "New Dallas", and "Aztlan" is a reservation on the shittiest land in Central America.

Heck, do one for every country. Run an "Absolut World Britain" across the pond where not only did the sun never set, but France and Ireland proudly wave the Union Jack. Run an "Absolut World Canada" up north where Canada annexes... Vermont, or whatever those flapping-headed bastards want. And so on.

Not that I can effectively boycott the company. I stopped drinking Absolute years ago in favor of Tanqueray and (later) North Shore years ago.

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^ 1

Re: Absolutly Outrageous!

postillion.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 05:23:52 PM EST

5.00 (astute, astute, funny)

If Absolut is going to pander to imperialism, then by God it can pander to my imperialism, too. Run a US-wide ad that shows an "Absolut World America",

The real problem with running such an ad in America is that Americans would actually take it seriously rather than tongue in cheek.

14

Absolut Truth

JimmyHavok.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 08:33:00 PM EST

none

This ad brings up a nasty bit of American history, and there are certain people don't like being reminded of history.  They'd much rather push it down in the memory hole, so they can go on feeling like they are the victims, and therefore justified in any outrage they commit.

I bet Lou Dobbs filled his underwear with DNA when he saw the news.  No need to figure out what to rant about today!

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Re: Absolut Truth

port1080.

Tue Apr 08, 2008 at 10:24:05 PM EST

5.00 (astute)

This ad brings up a nasty bit of American history, and there are certain people don't like being reminded of history.

The thing about history is that, well, it's history. If you go back far enough everybody's fucked over someone else. U.S. fucked over Mexico, the Spanish who founded Mexico fucked over the Aztecs, Aztecs fucked over the Mayans, etc, etc. Considering that the U.S. is an immigrant country, you have the further question of asking where the blame ends - after all, most Americans these days are probably descended from people who immigrated after 1845 (or from black slaves, who can hardly be blamed for the territorial annexation, or from Hispanics themselves, which creates a whole 'nother set of questions). History can mean pretty much anything, depending on your point of view - this is probably why academic history is drifting away from the social sciences and more towards literary theory. Even if everyone could be brought to an agreement that the US was completely in the wrong about annexing the trans-Mississippi from Mexico - what would you ever do about it? After such an amount of time, some injustices are essentially uncorrectable. If you want justice, talk about what's happening today - this is what good policy is based on. From a practical standpoint, Mexico and American Hispanics are better served arguments that take into account practical arguments about present day immigration and economic growth needs than they are by making arguments over historical injustices that are, at this point, impossible to correct. The last time the world saw and attempt to correct a centuries-old historical injustice, we got the state of Israel - and I think you'll agree with me that that attempted correction created far more problems than it solved.

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Re: Absolut Truth

JimmyHavok.

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 04:22:07 AM EST

4.00 (informative)

The border is where it is, today, a done deal.  But that doesn't mean we should forget how it got there, and get mad when someone actually talks about it.

I had a history teacher in high school who believed that history consisted of the battles that were fought in wars...he did a quick jump from the War of 1812 to the Civil War, for some reason.  I don't know if he even knew about the Mexican-American War, but we certainly didn't hear about it in his class.  I suspect that a majority of American students have a similar experience with that period of American history.

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Re: Absolut Truth

MayorBob.

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 06:16:37 AM EST

4.50 (astute, astute, astute)

And we all know that Swedish vodka companies are go-to guys for history lessons.  I might be able to confer some sort of educational value to Absolut's "lesson" if it were, say, a Mexican brand of booze -- at least they have national pride to explain their campaign.  But, this is a complete outsider looking to get some cheapjack sensationalist buzz off their ad campaign.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

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Re: Absolut Truth

JimmyHavok.

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 07:20:20 PM EST

2.00 (offtopic)

That's called an ad hominem argument.  It's a classic fallacy.

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Which man did I attack here?

MayorBob.

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 07:56:54 PM EST

4.00 (funny, funny)

Oh, you mean because they're Swedish and not Mexican, I have no right to an opinion about the company's motives behind the campaign?  That's just rude.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

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Re: Which man did I attack here?

JimmyHavok.

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 08:26:55 PM EST

2.50 (obnoxious)

If you're going to piss about the sources of education, you'll never get very educated.

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Re: Which man did I attack here?

MayorBob.

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 08:29:07 PM EST

4.50 (astute, astute)

And if I were to rely upon Swedish vodka companies for my "education" I'd probably end up with liver damage before I achieve enlightenment.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

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Re: Which man did I attack here?

JimmyHavok.

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 03:20:30 AM EST

3.33 (funny, funny)

Magazine ads in Spanish damage your liver?  Is that Lou Dobbs Disease?

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Re: Absolut Truth

gerrymander.

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 11:29:57 AM EST

4.00 (informative)

To be fair to your teacher, as wars go the Mexican-American War was pretty low-grade. I mean, you can teach the whole thing in a few sentences:

"In 1845, the recently-turned independent Mexico asserted its authority over Texas and the North American Southwest. After two years and nine major battles -- all of which were resounding defeats for the Mexican troops -- the United States proved that Mexico didn't have sufficient power to maintain authority over its own capital city, much less anything else."

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Re: Absolut Truth

Lou.

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 09:16:46 PM EST

5.00 (brilliant, astute, astute)

"In 1845, the recently-turned independent Mexico asserted its authority over Texas and the North American Southwest. After two years and nine major battles -- all of which were resounding defeats for the Mexican troops -- the United States proved that Mexico didn't have sufficient power to maintain authority over its own capital city, much less anything else."

Teacher:  Now class, what does this teach us?

Class (in unison): MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!

Teacher:  Excellent job, children!

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

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Re: Absolut Truth

port1080.

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 04:07:06 PM EST

none

Class (in unison): MIGHT MAKES RIGHT!


Well, maybe there's something to that?

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Re: Absolut Truth

Lou.

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 10:02:08 PM EST

5.00 (astute)

Well, maybe there's something to that?

Upon sober reflection (like I'm sober right now, ha!), I have to agree with you.  In fact, if we follow the bouncing ball of history, we might see something like this:

Whoa ho!  We are the Aztecs!  We are mighty...our shit doesn't stink!  Hey, who are you?
[THUNK!]

Ah ha!  We are the Spanish.  We are truly might and our shit doesn't stink.  Who are you? [BANG!!]

Hey there!  We're the American...er, Texans!  Yeah, that's right, Texans!  We are the mightiest of all and our shit smells like oil and clover!  Hey, who's that feller?

Lather...rinse...repeat.

It's the end of the world as we know it, and I feel fine

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^ 26

Re: Absolut Truth

postillion.

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 07:49:06 PM EST

none

I would think this could partly depend on whether a nation needs allies in a war or not.  If it's one nation pitted against another nation with no other nation involved, it will almost inevitably be the case of the mightier nation winning out.

However, if it's a war where numerous alliances are made, the leading nations will have to make appeals to other nations for military and financial support based on a number of factors including military might, political advantages, and sometimes moral arguments.  An easy way to consider this would be looking at the international support U.S. had in the war against Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and the lacklustre international support for our war against Iraq.  

While military might and political advantages remained the same (one could even argue that there is more political advantage for nations to align with the U.S. against Iraq given the amount of oil there and it's strategic geopolitical position), the moral argument has always been nebulous.

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Re: Absolut Truth

port1080.

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 08:34:23 PM EST

none

However, if it's a war where numerous alliances are made, the leading nations will have to make appeals to other nations for military and financial support based on a number of factors including military might, political advantages, and sometimes moral arguments.


That's still basically saying might makes right, though.  The US did well in Afghanistan because it had overwhelming international support (i.e. "might").  It did poorly in Iraq because it did not (i.e. it lacked "might").  It didn't really have anything to do with right or wrong - indeed, we arguably had purer reasons to go into Iraq (I think most of the neocons honestly thought they were going to liberate Iraq easily and bring on a new era of Middle Eastern peace, freedom and democracy - the problem was their naivety, not their motivations) than we did for going into Afghanistan (that was all about revenge, however justified).  Now, that's not to say that there's not anything to what you're saying.  Moral arguments can be used to bolster support (and immoral actions can weaken support), but ultimately the side with the numbers is the one that does the winning, and the winners that write the history books.  It's fortunate (at least, from my perspective) that generally speaking over the last century or so the world's democracies have done most of the winning, but if World War II had turned out a little differently I think we'd probably be sitting here debating the relative merits of fascism & communism.

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Re: Absolut Truth

PenitenziAgite.

Fri Apr 11, 2008 at 08:31:41 PM EST

5.00 (funny, brilliant)

There was plenty of might in Iraq.  The trouble is that might is just a mere mite in this fight, because our fight is not right.

sierra tango foxtrot uniform

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Re: Absolut Truth

thefadd.

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 07:58:45 PM EST

none

What's that?

It is easy to buy small plaster models of what you think life is like.

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Re: Absolut Truth

JimmyHavok.

Thu Apr 10, 2008 at 08:06:09 PM EST

none

It's a question of the prescriptive vs. the descriptive.

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Re: Absolut Truth

postillion.

Wed Apr 09, 2008 at 02:54:45 PM EST

4.00 (informative)

I don't know if he even knew about the Mexican-American War, but we certainly didn't hear about it in his class.

If you had lived in Texas as a kid like me, you could have gotten a  year of nothing but the Mexican-American war.  

Although it'd be questionable whether you would have learned about the Civil War or the two World Wars, much less Vietnam.  

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