Absolut Nationalism

By Patrick
Julio Gonzalez Altamirano discusses the controversial new Absolut ad (above) showing the west as part of Mexico:

A vodka company created a nationalist advertisement for the Mexican marketplace. The internets allowed an American audience to gaze upon said advertisement. And voila! An opportunity for anxiety, anger and shock to pour out on the different sides of all the issues our neighbor to the South conjures up: the growth of the Latino population, illegal immigration concerns, imperialism, the presence of the Spanish language in public square and so on.

I certainly dread the idiotic conflations that seem to be dominating the side boycotting the vodka company. Conflations such as confusing Latin America with Mexico. Or arguing that American Latinos are essentially an un-meltable mass of recent arrivals somehow magically coordinating to take back the Southwest for the Mexican government (I guess I didn’t get that memo.) And ultimately, I am just not persuaded that a liquor-selling multinational thinks enhanced profitability will result from actually fomenting a war or domestic revolt in the world’s largest economy.[...]

There is something utterly disingenuous about a Swedish vodka brand playing on Mexican nationalism with an ad that features English copy...there is definitely something unappealing about a corporation exploiting the real resentments present in developing country as a way of establishing brand appeal.