If absolut really want to do damage control they could have tried to pass this off as a Photoshop hoax and not the ad they created. They only run this for a short time in Mexico. It was a targeted high volume short term ad, there and gone with little time for U.S. residents to catch it. Unfortunately for them it got away from them and the halfhearted apology attempt is nothing more than lip service. Believe me there would have been no apology if this would have slid by un-noticed.
They made their mistake by trying to counter with a weak apology statement. This statement only confirms that the ad is authentic and of their creation and not that of the so called reconquista conspiracy theorist. As mentioned above media mouthpieces like Geraldo have always tried to pass Atzlan and reconquista claims off as the fantasies of the racist xenophobic rabid hate peddlers of the anti-immigrant movement. It’s hard to deny the fact that Absolut crossed the line got caught, took ownership of the ad.
Most marketing department when creating an ad campaigns always target a particular group with wording, music, background scenes, or pictures. While trying to achieve this goal the rule is to remain neutral to the non-target groups. You baby boomers should be able to relate to a least one commercial that you call someone else into the room to watch that has a good 70’s tune playing in the background of a car commercial. Meanwhile your kids look at you like you have three eyes. The ad was targeted at you but did offend your kids. On the converse of that is the ad for a new energy drink additive on the market targeted at kids. It’s called smack and comes in a small vile. It looks like heroin but is an energy drink additive and parents are PO’ed. Obviously the add was not non-offensive to the non-target group.
Absolut made the following assertion in their apology, “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.â€
