Category: blogging

Developing…

Source.

Absolut-ly sorry about ad’s map of Mexico, firm says

Mark Stevenson, Associated Press
Sunday, April 6, 2008

(04-06) 04:00 PDT Mexico City —

The Absolut vodka company apologized Saturday for an ad campaign depicting the southwestern United States as part of Mexico amid angry calls for a boycott by U.S. consumers.

The campaign, which promotes ideal scenarios under the slogan “In an Absolut World,” showed a 1830s-era map when Mexico included California, Texas and other southwestern states. Mexico still resents losing that territory in the 1848 Mexican-American War and the fight for Texas independence.

But the ads, which ran only in Mexico and have since ended, were less than ideal for Americans undergoing a border buildup and embroiled in an emotional debate over illegal immigration from their southern neighbor.

More than a dozen calls to boycott Absolut were posted on michellemalkin.com, a Web site operated by conservative columnist Michelle Malkin. The ads sparked heated comment on a half-dozen 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 left on its consumer inquiry phone line.

Some fringe U.S. groups also claim the land is rightfully part of Mexico, while extreme immigration foes argue parts of the United States already are being overtaken by Mexico.

“In an Absolut world, a company that produces vodka fires its entire marketing department in a desperate attempt to win back enraged North American customers after a disastrous ad campaign backfires,” a person using the moniker “SalsaNChips” wrote on Malkin’s Web site.

A plan for comprehensive immigration reform designed to deal with an estimated 12 million undocumented immigrants in the United States – the vast majority from Mexico – collapsed last summer under the emotional weight of the debate.

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.”

Shock Sells!…Or does it?

By the by, this topic was found over at the Bruce Daniels blog at the ABQjournal, though I’m going to take a different cut at it. His blog post is good, however, and worth the read.

Ok, so here’s the deal, the marketing folks behind the highly successful series of Absolut Vodka ads have been working on a new ad campaign, “Absolute World”. This has been rolling around for about a year.

Here are a few of the examples:
(sorry for the varying sizes, these were located in several places around the ‘net)

Ostensibly that we get “objective evidence” when a politician is lying.

The guy is preggers. The girl gets to look hot.

In case you can’t read the buttons, they say “looking”, “twisted”, “married” and “boring”

Times Square with famous art instead of advertising (ironic, no?).

Had to stare at this one a while…I believe it’s implying that every home in LA has a limo and a red carpet.

Ok. Fine. You get the idea. I believe what they are getting at is that “in a perfect world” there would be, uh, “justice”. That politicians are caught lying, that men have to suffer the indignities of pregnancy, that the games played in singles bars would be over, that art is more important than advertising (just SO ironic) and that everyone in Hollywood is a star.

Ok? Yeah, whatever. I mean, I’m not sure I’m totally onboard with this campaign, but I get what they are attempting to say.

Until I saw this one:

So what exactly are they getting at here?

No really, I’m asking, because I honestly don’t get this ad.

The object of any advertisement is to get people to do something. Usually to buy your product or service.

Bruce Daniels’ blog indicates this ad is running in magazines in Mexico.

So is the purpose here that we’re trying to stir up anti-American sentiment by invoking bad feelings following the Mexican-American War. For those, like me, who can’t stay awake in history class, that war took place from 1846-1848. Are we to understand that, hey, drink this vodka, feel a sense of national pride and let’s go get our land back?

Or is Absolut trying to inflame the anti-immigration people? Sure to be a hot topic in this year’s Presidential election. Do they think that people will drink their vodka and feel a sense of national pride and make sure that “they’ll never get my land”?

No really, I’m asking. WTF is Absolut trying to say here? And either way why does that make me want to drink their product?

The tone of the ad campaign seems to be about “justice”, righting a universal “wrong” (wrong being in quotes because I’m sure not everyone would agree on that judgment call made in these advertisements). So is there a “wrong” we’re trying to “right” with this new ad?

I really don’t know. I just don’t get it.

Probably for me, personally, the point is moot. I’d rather drink a jug of kerosene than Absolut. Then again, my very dear gang of Russian friends have helped me learn how to appreciate good vodka. Good meaning it doesn’t go down like, uh, kerosene and make my head feel like a punching bag.

But let’s not lose the point here…

What IS this ad trying to say? I can’t decide if I should be offended.

Oh hell, it’s Friday, why waste the energy. I’ll just go with a head tilted doggy “baroo” and move on.

And have a tequila drink instead.

Pass the cake!

Feliz Cumpleaños para my blog!

Yup, it was a year ago today that I kicked off my little New Mexico blog, unsure if I was going to make it past a few months.

Here I am one year and 233 posts later, going as strong as ever.

I’ve learned a lot on this road.

Blogging is harder than it looks.

Before I’d get pissy when my fave bloggers didn’t post something every day. Now, I’m a lot more understanding. It’s no small feat to have something to say every day.

Also, it’s made me a bit more microscopic in my view of the world (not like I needed any help in that department). Most everything I see in my life is a potential blog topic.

Even The Good Man will comment, “hey, you could blog about that”.

It’s also given me some writing discipline. I can crank out words, and that’s cool.

More confidence too, in my writing.

And best of all, I’ve met some new online friends who’ve been helpful to me with ideas, suggestions, and support.

Plus it has made my feline an internet celeb! :)

If my blog were a person, I’d give this little one year old a cake and let the face mashing good times begin.

Yay!

Sportsmanship! Feh!

From today’s Las Cruces Sun News:

“The Western Athletic Conference has issued a warning to all WAC members that any pre-meditated chants that contain vulgar or offensive language will result in a technical foul called against the home team.”

(full article)

You know what, that fine Aggie tradition of shouting “Nice shot, ass–le” at basketball games dates back to my college years. Like, uh, back to the early 90’s.

I started out this blog post going to rant about the demolition of a tradition. But actually, that crowd chant was pretty juvenile back in ’91 (which was why it was fun), but it’s probably time to move it along to something new. And even more juvenile.

Not sure I buy into a Technical Foul to the home team. That’s an expensive penalty, and how are they supposed to corral their own fans, anyway? I guess when the fans lose a game because of the T, they’ll pipe down.

So ok. It’s lame that the WAC is governing this NOW, some twenty years later. They really should have gotten in front of it back then. I mean, you can *hear* it on television! Seems hard to curb this now. But ok, it’s part of the rules now.

So I’ll let this one go. But I’ll *never* let go of the grand SF Giants fans in the bleachers tradition of “what’s the matter with < insert name of opposing team's outfielder here >??……He’s. A. BUM!”