Absolut Nationalism

by on 7 April, 2008 - 06:37

by: Ilya Vedrashko

Note to self: Only approve creative that offends people in the countries that either don't import your product or don't have the internets and photoshops.In Mexico, Absolut is running a print and a billboard that shows Mexico with borders from the early 1800s as part of its In An Absolut World campaign. LA Times blogs about it; pissed off readers create their own version of an ideal world:Absolut responds on the campaign blog (742 comments to date): "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. Obviously, this ad was run in Mexico, and not the US -- that ad might have been very different."

As one of the commenters on the blog points out, Absolut sales by country in 2007 were 50% for the US, 3% for Mexico.This is fun. The creative is gonna be a hit on the Balkans where every country dreams of a "Greater" (and historically accurate) version of itself. A good place to start is Serbia that just lost Kosovo. Here, let me help: Greater Bulgaria, Greater Albania, Greater Macedonia, Greater Serbia, Greater Romania, Greater Croatia.Kinda like this Smart billboard from South Africa boasting how there's nothing American about the car.

Original Post: http://adverlab.blogspot.com/2008/04/absolut-nationalism.html