Sweden, To Mexico: Buy Vodka!

This is the latest Absolute vodka ad causing a stir in the overly-emotional and, in what often seems to be the case, any-excuse-to-hate-foreigners immigration debate. It re-imagines the U.S.-Mexico border lying where it was before the Mexican-American war of 1848 and was created by a Mexico City-based advertising firm in what appears to be an attempt to capitalize on Mexican nationalism and hurt pride over their war losses in the past.

The ad was only meant to run in Mexico but since the web is indeed world wide, that just doesn't happen any more. So of course now all the right-wing, anti-immigrant groups are howling about how it was deliberately written in English as a provocation to the U.S., some kind of attempt to promote the so-called "Reconquista" agenda for the American southwest.

Now I highly doubt that Absolut decided that it would be a good marketing idea or increase their sales to foment a war for territorial rights between the U.S. and Mexico, and I certainly don't think that many American Absolut drinkers will interpret this ad in that way. This just seems to be controversy for controversy's sake; it's how smart advertising works. Poke the groups that enjoy hating brown people with a stick and then sit back and reap the free press and Internet buzz that their unpopular ranting creates for your product.