Sometimes, Your Being Offended Offends Me 1
By Giania • Apr 11th, 2008 at 6:21 pm • Category: Articles of Interest| Hot: |  |  | | | |
Case in point: People getting all up in arms about an Absolut print ad campaign depicting a large chunk of the southwest United States as being part of Mexico “In an Absolut World”.
Give me a break, people. What are you offended by, exactly? History? The fact of the matter is, the land depicted in the ad’s map did belong to Mexico at one point. Is the serious offense in suggesting that the United States’ fulfillment of Manifest Destiny is somehow fallible? Heaven forbid anyone challenge the conquest of the central portion of North America.
I understand people having immigration issues, to a point. Yet to get bent out of shape over a vodka company implying that it might be ideal if the borders had never changed? Honestly. Am I the only one who sees it that way? That it’s not suggesting Mexico “retake” that area, it’s not suggesting that Mexicans should “overrun” the southwest, or that illegal immigration is a good idea.
It was an ad, run in Mexico, for booze, that used a historical reference to highlight Mexico’s once grand territory in order to associate a feeling of pride in one’s country with their product. Ultimately, it’s highly unlikely that their goal was to stir up a world of shit for themselves. It was to sell vodka to more Mexicans. Instead what they’ve got is a smaller marketing department and threats of boycott.
I find the the outrage dredged up by the idea of a company wanting to push more product pretty offensive. The more anger is expressed over that, and the more lines are drawn between immigration issues and this ad, the more nasty arguments and anti-Mexican sentiment are going to rise. I understand the concept of maintaining solid borders, of national programs being available only to legitimate citizens (to an extent). What I don’t understand and absolutely don’t like is people disparaging an entire country full of people by taking a tongue-in-cheek advertisement by a company who is based out of an entirely different country (Sweden, according to the giant PDF with tiny print they put out) and blowing the intended meaning way out of proportion. It shows a lack of rationality and serves as another vocal demonstration of how reactionary, intolerant, and anti-intellectual Americans have managed to portray themselves as.
Tonight, I’m gonna buy a vodka tonic… with Absolut in it. What are you going to do?
