By Leonard Doyle
Absolut vodka has apologised for it's ad campaign depicting the southwestern US as part of Mexico following angry demands from right-wing groups in America.
The hilarious campaign slogan, "In an Absolut World", showed a 1830s-era map when Mexico included California, Texas and other southwestern states. Many Americans already feel their country is being taken over by Hispanics and it is also the case that these underpaid and often abused workers keep the US economy ticking over.
Mexico still seethes at the loss of that territory in the 1848 Mexican-American War and the fight for Texas independence. The annexation of Mexican territory isn't something Americans generally feel comfortable talking about. But seeing the ad on various blogs was a red rag to a bull and a campaign was quickly whipped up which could have damaged Absolut's bottom line.
The ads only ran in Mexico and have now ended. But they came as the US presses ahead with its controversial border security fence in an attempt to keep out illegal immigrants from the South. The conservative columnist Michelle Malkin spearheaded the campaign which spread like wildfire to other internet sites and blogs.
"In no way was it meant to offend or disparage, nor does it advocate an altering of borders, nor does it lend support to any anti-American sentiment, nor does it reflect immigration issues," Absolut said in a statement to US consumers, claiming 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 recognise 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 apologise."
I wish you American's would calm down and stop being so sensitive for goodness sake. IT'S AN AD THAT WAS AIRED IN MEXICO, NOT THE U.S.!
Well, I can certainly tell who the American's are on here...you can't spell to save your lives!
We've got it bad here too with mass immigration, mostly illegal, but we don't cry about it.
Oh, and for that absolutely pathetic comment by Will E about we, the British, not being able to "hold on" to the "half of the world" that we apparently "stole"...get your facts straight. We colonised it and it was no more than one third... and as for supposedly "losing" it...WE GAVE IT BACK because we knew it was wrong and the rught time had come. Unlike the American's who invade countries they see as a threat to their own interests and upon invasion, they plan to stay there indefinitely! *cough* IRAQ! Not only that, but they feel they have to drag the rest of the world into their pathetic excuses for wars...yeah, and all in the name of DEMOCRACY! Ha! Don't make me laugh! The UK is by far more democratic and FREE than the "all-mighty" U.S. of A., "the land of the free" hahaha!
When you get finally accept you were wrong about Iraq and have stopped crying about your greed for more oil, then write on an BRITISH site about how insensitive a little advert and how "damaging" a minority population are to the "great" U.S.A.! Get a hold of yourselves... in fact, get some perspective...
Posted by: crASH | 10 April 2008 at 11:44 PM
I was appalled when I first saw the ad. After thinking about it I realized losing California wouldn't be all that bad. We'd probably have to pay them to take it though. Hmmm...perhaps the Mexicans would accept the north eastern "blue" states in lieu of cash?
Posted by: Bubba | 10 April 2008 at 04:12 AM
diana: "they wouldn't be citizens if they were here illegally."
Are you truly stupid? Mexican nationals do not give up their Mexican citizenship when they slip across the US border. As a matter of fact candidates in the last Mexican Presidential election campaigned in Southern California and voting was held for illegals at the Mexican consulates.
There were Mexican voter drives in Los Angeles and Orange counties to turn out the vote. One of the major topics was which candidate would do the most to support Mexican citizens illegally in the US.
Get a clue.
Posted by: in_awe | 08 April 2008 at 06:43 PM
Doyle's ignorance writ large in this blithering feature is epitomized by his egregious failure to mention the essential fact that Mexico SOLD its territory to America.
The Mexican government manifests its Seller's Remorse by encouraging Reconquista thru the illegal export of its oppressed peones while its white/mestizo elites thrive on the economic boost derived from the wages sent back home.
Posted by: Perla | 08 April 2008 at 10:26 AM
Javi,
I'm not sure what you're getting at. I'm not a descendant of the people that founded the United States. Secondly, the abuse and oppression brought by Mexico's elites is not some distant historical event, it's ongoing to this very day. I suggest you learn a little something about Mexico before making ridiculous comments.
Posted by: Richard | 08 April 2008 at 01:57 AM
If you guys didn't notice this man has an Irish last name...
Posted by: John | 08 April 2008 at 12:28 AM
Richard: to mention the "barbaric abuse of the mexican people by their spanish elites" is something like mentioning the barbaric abuse of the original US population by their barbaric English elites..or should I call you Ricardo??
Posted by: Javi | 07 April 2008 at 11:44 PM
Leonard, your article is rubbish. You know nothing about the history or present situation, and you have no idea how intense of an issue illegal immigration is in the US at the moment. I suggest you stick to covering darts or whatever it is you British writers do when your not whinging about the US.
Posted by: Tim | 07 April 2008 at 11:34 PM
I don't believe in this economical argument since the economy isn't doing that well in first place. The Hispanics in our country have more rights then Americans. All the scholarships and everything goes for them towards them. Their women can afford to have 5-6 babies to take over our country and have a paycheck at home. Sure the husband is working and all but if we compare and add the costs I think they make as much as the average American living in Dakota or Montana so please enough of this. This is the country where the strongest and brightest make it to the top schools not because there are certain quota-s to be met. And to be honest as a white American, the rights we have given to hispanics are an insult to the black African American community of this country which is as American as I am and has suffered a lot more then the recent 30 year wave of immigration that has taken over the country.
Drive illegal immigrants out, give jobs back to Americans, we need them more then ever.
Posted by: DIOSKURIAN-KNIGHTS | 07 April 2008 at 11:10 PM
Mr. Doyle,
Actually, why am I wasting my time on someone like you.
Forget it!
Posted by: Kelsey Williams | 07 April 2008 at 10:19 PM
We at Absolut also express our condolences to the failing UK newspaper "The Independent", which cannot afford to pay real writers, so must accept inferior work from pre-school students such as Leonard Doyle. We at Absolut believe that such abuse of children has no place in the developed world, although one can understand such practises in Mexico. All in all, we are grateful to the staff at The Independent for helping to drive sales of Absolut products in the UK. Thanks, and again, our condolences.
Posted by: Al Fin | 07 April 2008 at 09:56 PM
lol in_awe
they wouldn't be citizens if they were here illegally.
try being a little more convincing next time. maybe someone will believe you.
Posted by: Diana | 07 April 2008 at 09:38 PM
As a Norwegian-American I am waiting patiently for the ad that shows half of Sweden in Norway. Perhaps everything above Upsala?
Posted by: Jo | 07 April 2008 at 09:37 PM
It's just an ad. It was not intended to be fun to Europeans or offensive to Americans (Americans are the people who live in the American Continent, but lacking a better word, I'll use it to refer the citizens of the United States). The ad was made only to sell vodkas in Mexico. Anyways, I would like to comment a couple of things:
FIRST. I think the following statement is true: "America is the only country in the world that would have been the butt of such an ad"
But... have you ever wondered why? (I mean anyone who reads all these posts, not just the guy who wrote it).
Invading helpless rich oil countries won't make a better world also. American interventions all over the world are not making the U.S. more popular, just in case you were thinking that.
http://www.counterpunch.org/catalin09112004.html
SECOND. "And just think how corrupt their elites must be back home that these workers feel compelled to travel 1000 miles to be 'underpaid' and 'abused'."
That is soo true. Yet, mexicans (like me) have a great deal of responsibility. If we were united, we could kick off those bastards.
That was my third world perspective. I've seen the ad in Monterrey, Mexico and believe me, there is not much fuss about it.
Posted by: Alex. | 07 April 2008 at 08:38 PM
Roughly 1 of every 5 Mexican citizens is now in the US illegally. That is 20,000,000 illegals undercutting our national sovereignty and draining taxpayers to support them. The state of California absorbs an estimated $10 Billion of costs annually related to the presence of illegals here. Schools, hospitals, social services and other infrastructure is collapsing under the weight of the illegal inflow.
The average illegal has less than a high school education and few if any skills aside from manual labor or that required for the lowest service level role. The poverty rolls in the US is highly correlated with the influx of illegals. We are "importing" poverty into the US by allowing the illegal flow to continue. Not a great national policy.
At the same time an estimated $29 Billion was sent to Mexico by illegals working in the US. Much of that was the result of wages paid in cash and untaxed. From a macro economic perspective, what is the affect of removing $29 Billion from local economies? If you subscribe to the velocity of money theory, that $29 Billion becomes a much larger amount - perhaps $100 Billion to $200 Billion - that is removed from supporting other participants in our economy and diverted to Mexico. Money transfers from the US is now exceeded only by oil revenues as being the largest source of income for Mexico.
School drop-out rates for children of illegals is exceptionally high, thus undercutting the liklihood of a economic conversion to net contributors in the next generation. Birthrates among illegals outstrips that of other groups, again weakening the potential for the group to be a net contributor economically.
So, I've must wonder if we are acting hysterically when someone thinks it is a good idea to stoke the flames of Mexicans thinking that Reconquista is a great idea. When the Mexican government is already providing written guides and supplies of food and water to people planning to violate our border, and is increasing its active interference in US politics we happen to think that we have a serious problem.
Posted by: in_awe | 07 April 2008 at 06:46 PM
The UK stole half the world in the 18th and 19th centuries. Seems they are bit sensitive now that they couldn't hold on to it.
Posted by: Will E, | 07 April 2008 at 05:48 PM
Absolut is laughing all the way to the bank on this one. The added exposure their product received due to the uproar is likely worth millions to them.
Posted by: Eric | 07 April 2008 at 05:06 PM
I don't see how it is somehow ultranationalistic to take offense at this ad. The utilization of nationalism, complete with historical territorial disputes, in an ad campaign is really not very smart.
"The annexation of Mexican territory isn't something Americans generally feel comfortable talking about"
Perhaps you can speak for yourself on this one. America won a war against a chaotic despotism, and could have taken all of Mexico had it so chosen. Everyone in this area, whatever their original nationality or ethnicity, is the better for it.
America is the only country in the world that would have been the butt of such an ad, and many of us are frankly sick of the double standard. When a global company tries to make a few pesos from anti-American feeling, one is right to protest. I would say that you might feel the same way were the UK treated similarly, but I frankly wonder if you have the gumption or self respect.
Posted by: David | 07 April 2008 at 04:55 PM
Maybe an Absolut World with a "Greater Germany" superimposed upon a map of 1942 Europe and Africa?
Posted by: Wettap | 07 April 2008 at 03:16 PM
What is with the Euros and hatred? "hilarious campaign slogan," it certainly wasn't *that* funny even if you like making fun of Americans. Bigotry doesn't make the world a better place, Europe. You hold yourselves up to be so superior to Americans and you just come off looking like immature kids with a chip on their shoulder.
Posted by: J. Beeler | 07 April 2008 at 03:14 PM
grey goose ftw! never buying this crap again.. got a corona?
Posted by: no | 07 April 2008 at 02:54 PM
"it is also the case that these underpaid and often abused workers keep the US economy ticking over"
And just think how corrupt their elites must be back home that these workers feel compelled to travel 1000 miles to be "underpaid" and "abused". The barbaric abuse of the mexican people by their spanish elites is one of the great exploitation stories of modern times that receives little to no concern from self-styled progressives.
Sometime, take a trip to San Diego. Then take a drive to Tijuana. As you cross the border you enter a world of filth, disorganization, and official corruption. A world people flee from in the tens of thousands each year. Fleeing some of the most fertile farmlands because those lands have been so mismanaged that they are unable to provide the wage you insist is "underpaid."
I've been to Mexico. The idea that anyone could suggest that government should be in control of more territory is not ideal nor is it 'hilarious.'
Posted by: Richard | 07 April 2008 at 02:01 PM