Absolut Vodka Commercial
evawhite on April 11th, 2008
It is a Vodka advertisement that has recently raised American hackles, prompting the ultimate withdrawal of the advert and an apology from the Vodka Company to boot! If you look at the Yahoo questions on this issue, you will see just how many hackles! Lots of people pissed off enough to say they will boycott the drink until an apology is published etc, etc. The American sensibility is so important that the ad has been pulled and not a trace of it can be found anywhere except a Brisbane news site which is where I got the photo from! The ad, which says “In an Absolut world” goes on to show a map with the entire mid western area of the US including California shown to be part of Mexico.
This incident has brought back into focus some long forgotten bit of history, that states such as Texas and California which are now almost symbolic of the United States of America were actually part of Mexico in the past. In the mid nineteenth century, the United States annexed Texas and thereafter hatched a plan to purchase the areas that form present day California and New Mexico for the sum of $30 million! Such unabashedly imperialistic action would shock the world today. In fact it was just such an attempt at invading and annexing of Kuwait by Iraq that caused the Gulf War. The war that resulted from this annexation was the Mexican War (1846–48). At the end of the war and as a result of a treaty, Mexico ceded to the U.S. nearly all of present New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, California, Texas, and Colorado for princely sum of $15,000,000!
In light of this I don’t think it is unreasonable for many Mexicans to think about these south western American areas as an erstwhile part of Mexico or feel some territorial kinship. Further the Americans are at pains to keep Mexicans out of areas which Mexicans have some reason to believe should have been theirs. And if a company decided to gain some advertising mileage for their product from this historical perception, so be it I say! This commercial meant to target the Mexican consumer audience, and anyone taking umbrage at this I do understand, but have no sympathy for! Take it with a pinch of salt and a dash of humor for heaven’s sake! What do you all think?
I remember going to Dharamshala and Mcleodganj some years ago (the Namgyal monastery, where the Dalai Lama is based, is there). At the time, China had just won the contract to host the Olympics and even then the Tibetians were circulating flyers telling everyone to boycott those Olympics and other Chinese products etc. I remember thinking at the time, that this is not much of a protest or struggle, ensconced safely in India hundreds of kilometers from their actual homeland. Ever since India offered the Tibetians and their spiritual leader the Dalai Lama a safe haven in Dharamshala, Tibetians moved to India in their thousands and settled here, continuing to wage their agitation against Chinese oppression from afar. I had thought to myself they are living a comfortable enough life here in India, not really putting them in the line of fire, so do they really deserve support?
The Tibetians have been suppressed and denied basic rights such as religious freedom under Chinese occupation and these factors are only now coming to the fore with the Tibetian call to the world to boycott the Olympics and to support their struggle against Chinese oppression. Tibetians who have been able to escape continue to live in India or elsewhere, unable to return to their homeland because of this. In this article the Dalai Lama appealed to the world community to “please help” resolve the crisis in his homeland. He was so disturbed by some of the protesters turning violent that threatened to resign as the religious and spiritual head of the Tibetian people.
