Absolut Reclaims Southwest US for Mexico

Absolut Vodka has redrawn the US-Mexico border in an ad running in Mexico.

Absolut defended the ad on the corporate blog:
“Obviously, this ad was run in Mexico, and not the US -- that ad might have been very different.”

A company that is dialed into Web 2.0 enough to have a blog should realize that you can’t place an ad in one country that may be offensive to another and not expect that ad to come back to haunt you. Seriously, did they think that Mexico doesn’t have internet access or camera phones?

Here are some Absolut World campaigns that were rejected:

• States of the Confederacy: Didn’t feel that they could compete with Bud Light for the Nascar demographic.
• USSR: Litvinenko
• Hitler’s Germany: Even the dimmest of marketers knows not to go there.
• Napolean’s Europe: Fear of offending diminutive Italians everywhere.
• The Holy Roman Empire: Too many papists think that alcohol is a tool of the devil.
• Empire of Alexander’s the Great: Thought it might be too controversial considering the circumstances of NATO’s veto of Macedonia.